


Grant Us Wings

by janonny



Category: Social Network (2010) RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-05
Updated: 2012-02-05
Packaged: 2017-10-30 15:57:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/333470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janonny/pseuds/janonny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fairytale (literally) that involves love and heritage, the choices we make and the silliness that is Andrew and Jesse’s lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grant Us Wings

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Keira Knightley is a faerie and was never an actress in this story.
> 
> Special thanks to [elefante_locura](elefante_locura.livejournal.com) for being a lifesaver and for her marvelous beta-work on this fic! ♥

There was something about Andrew. Something very strange.

It wasn’t enough that he was this bright, warm person, with huge, doe-like brown eyes, and ridiculous, impossible hair. He was unacceptably attractive, with a very taut body, and an embarrassing penchant for red plaid pants. He did silly, over-the-top dances as easily as he did sexy, gyrating club-type dancing. He paid full attention to Jesse, made him feel like the most important person in the room, and their sense of humor fit together like peas in a pod. Sometimes, Andrew ate ice-cream in a way that should be made illegal, it was so obscene, right before he turned an oblivious, sweet smile at Jesse that just made Jesse feel guilty for the filthy thoughts piling up in his brain.

But there were other things too. Other stranger things

Like how Pisana, Jesse’s small grey cat, who was twitchy and afraid of people and only warmed up to Jesse after two months of him feeding her, immediately loved Andrew. How she had spent ten seconds looking at Andrew before immediately rubbing up against his leg, begging to be picked up. Andrew had scratched behind her ear, watching her blissful face, before turning a beaming smile at Jesse.

Like how Jesse sometimes came home to find Andrew snoozing on the couch, which was normal, Andrew had his spare keys and was welcome to let himself in at any time; but stranger still was how this scattering of very fine, powdery black dust could usually be found around the couch, like Andrew had been shedding strange black dandruff in huge quantities.

Like how Jesse woke up one night to find owls – he didn’t even know there were owls in New York – lining up along his apartment windows. He had gone to get Andrew to see this strange phenomenon, except that Andrew was tucked up in bed, snoring softly, and there were even more owls perched outside the guest bedroom window. It was almost creepy, except the owls had been hooting softly, almost crooning, and Jesse had a strange thought that even _owls_ liked Andrew.

Like how Jesse thought that the night with the owls was a dream after eating too much Pad Thai for dinner, except another night, he found bats hanging upside down outside their windows, making strangely happy squeaking sounds while trying to see through the glass. They were a lot cuter than Jesse thought they would be.

Like how sometimes, when they were out walking at night, Andrew would look even sharper, so very bright in the moonlight. And how random scavenging badgers would come popping out of some bush or trash can and scurry over to Andrew, trying to nose at him while he awkwardly said things like, “Oh, hi, um, carry on now. Let’s not make a scene.” Jesse swore that he had once turned around to see a line of rats following them down the street, like Andrew was the pied piper of New York.

So yes, Andrew was very, very strange.

It should have worried Jesse, but at least he knew that life with Andrew wouldn’t ever be boring.

# # # # # # # # # #

Andrew pored over the apartments for sale on his laptop, bookmarking anything that looked remotely interesting.

His criteria for interesting were:

a. Within 1 kilometer of Jesse’s apartment.

b. Pet-friendly, in case he ever needed to cat-sit for Jesse.

c. Three bedrooms, so he could have family and friends over - including Jesse, for any rare nights where they were too tired to budge, and Jesse was too lazy to go back to his own apartment.

There was an emerging trend within his criteria.

For the moment, Andrew was anchorless and living out of a suitcase in a hotel room. More precisely, he had a suitcase in a hotel room and spent most nights in Jesse’s guest room while he was looking for something more permanent in New York. Andrew kept reminding Jesse that if he was in the way, Jesse could definitely tell him to bugger off. But any suggestions that Andrew was in the way had only resulted in a blank look from Jesse and the question, “In the way of what?”

The door to Jesse’s apartment opened as Jesse walked in, carrying the take out he had gone out to get.

“Do you know the Marilyn Apartments?” asked Andrew.

Jesse dropped his keys in the basket by the door, and bent down to pat Pisana. “I know of it. Do they have a unit for sale?”

“Yeap,” said Andrew, hand poised over his keyboard while his attention was taken up by Jesse bending over to scratch under Pisana’s chin.

He shouldn’t be staring, he shouldn’t be staring, oh too late, he was staring. Jesse really should wear tighter pants, he had a rather nice rear end when it was actually on display. Andrew felt like sighing in imitation of Pisana who was making pleased, purring sounds and turning this way and that for Jesse to better scratch her cheek. For a moment, Andrew wished he was a cat, before stomping on the ridiculous urge.

“It’s new, but I think they’re going to start demolishing the building next to it for another apartment block,” said Jesse, straightening with a frown.

Andrew’s eyes quickly snapped back to his computer. That would make Marilyn Apartments too noisy in the near future. Andrew took that off his bookmarks.

“Argh, I give up,” Andrew threw his hands up. “Let’s have lunch first before I go on looking for a permanent residence. What did you get?”

Jesse walked past the couch towards the kitchen and dining room area, carrying his bags of Indian food. “Tandoori chicken and garlic naan for you, palak paneer for me.”

Andrew abandoned his laptop on the living room table as Jesse puttered around the kitchen and dug around in the cutlery drawer. Jesse never took the plastic cutlery that came with take-out if he could help it. They both unpacked the food together, placing the still hot meals at their usual places on the dining table.

When they finally sat down for lunch, Jesse looked over with a smile. “Hey, Justin called and wanted to talk to you.”

Andrew frowned. “Timberlake or Bartha?”

“Timberlake. You don’t have your phone with you? When you said you needed to stay over, I didn’t know I was signing up to be your answering machine as well,” Jesse said with a wry smile, settling himself down for lunch.

Andrew looked in the direction of the guest room but decided against fetching his phone, and he sat down instead.

He smirked at Jesse. “I like having an Oscar-nominated answering machine. Anyway, I think the battery died, cause I didn’t hear it ringing.”

Though chances were that even if Andrew’s phone wasn’t dead, he wouldn’t have answered Justin’s call.

“I always knew the Oscar nomination would bring me prestige and fame. I finally get to be Spider-man’s answering machine,” said Jesse, scooping up rice on his spoon.

“Please, you didn’t even know who Spider-man was before I got the role,” teased Andrew with a grin.

Andrew was tearing into his naan with his hands when Jesse continued, “Justin sounded like he really wanted to talk to you though. He asked for you to call him back when I got home.”

His mouth full of delicious, curry-soaked garlic naan, Andrew made a displeased face at Jesse.

Jesse commented, “You’re- Well, you’re kind of strange about Justin. Are you projecting Sean Parker onto him?”

“It’s not about Sean Parker,” said Andrew, after swallowing his food. “I just- We don’t click, that’s all.”

Jesse looked disbelieving. “You click with everyone. You talk and talk and people are hypnotized by your earnestness and excitement and can’t help but ‘click’ with you. Justin likes you just fine, but you always avoid him.”

“Friendship by hypnotism?” asked Andrew with a huff of a laugh. “I don’t really- Okay, just a little. I don’t really feel comfortable around him.”

That was an understatement.

“Why? I mean, you know I’ll understand right? I’ve vast experience feeling uncomfortable around people, though Justin seems a strange choice because he’s funny and very friendly.”

It never failed to annoy Andrew when he heard people – especially Jesse – heaping praise onto Justin.

“We have a history,” said Andrew, and then immediately wished he hadn’t said it.

Just because he didn’t like lying to Jesse didn’t mean he should be spilling all his secrets to him, especially secrets he really couldn’t spill. There were some things that Jesse couldn’t know yet, some things that most humans couldn’t ever find out.

But Jesse looked very interested now, eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “I didn’t know you guys met before The Social Network?”

Andrew made a face. “It was a long time ago. But it wasn’t a big deal, and I’m mostly over it. I’ll call him back after lunch.”

Jesse was unconvinced, frowning now instead, and Andrew couldn’t bear to be the cause of Jesse’s frowns. He spoke again before Jesse could say anything, “Don’t worry about it, it’s not very important. We’re fine-”

Which was when all Hell broke loose.

# # # # # # # # # #

The first two minutes were a blur of bright light and explosions. Jesse’s windows exploded inwards, and people catapulted into the apartment from the broken windows, like they weren’t on the sixth floor of the building. Jesse startled so badly that he knocked his food off the table, but Andrew didn’t have time to think about that, shooting up to his feet instead. He knocked over the table and dragged Jesse out of his chair, pushing him between the table and the kitchen counter.

“Stay-” Andrew started saying, but never finished, when hands grabbed onto his shoulders.

As he stared into Jesse’s wide blue eyes, he was wrenched backwards and thrown against the fridge.

Fuck, he needed to- But if he did that, then Jesse would know, and he couldn’t- He threw a punch at his attacker’s face, and managed to land a solid blow to his jaw. Andrew was released, and he was about to lash out again, when another man joined them, grabbing onto Andrew’s arm and pinning him to the fridge.

The man with shiny blond hair clutching his own jaw was dressed in gold. But the man holding Andrew was entirely in black and had long dark hair.

More importantly, from their backs, he could see huge, stretched open faerie wings; the ones on the blond man a vivid blue while the man in black had white, almost feathery wings.

Bugger.

He might not have a choice in this.

Before he could think of a way out of this, Jesse smashed his metal kettle against the dark haired man’s head.

“Oh, god, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but what the hell, are those butterfly wings, you need to get out of my apartment!” came the litany of confused words from Jesse, still clutching his kettle.

The man dropped his hold on Andrew to grab the back of his head, but the other assailant turned around to Jesse instead.

Andrew kicked out wildly at the back of the blond man’s knee, and he grabbed those bright blue wings and pulled hard. The man staggered and yelled in pain. Before Andrew could do anything else, the dark-haired man grabbed him around the shoulders and yanked him back. Andrew tried to elbow him, and watched in horror as another two people ran into the kitchen from the living room. One grabbed hold of Jesse, who tried to whack him with the kettle as well.

Andrew was fit from Spider-man, but he wasn’t a fighter. He never was, and that was why he had left. But it was too late. He couldn’t hide anymore.

Andrew reached deep within his mind, to his _magic_ , and unfurled his wings. They opened with a rush, stretching and tearing through his T-shirt before hitting the man behind him in the face. Andrew staggered free and summoned his vial of moonlight into his hand. Then he smashed it against the ground.

There was a bright, blinding light, and the two fairer attackers, the _Light faeries_ , cried out in pain. Andrew whispered, “Sleep”, the word barely past his lips before the two Light faeries dropped to the ground, unconscious. But the Dark faeries were unaffected, leaving him to grapple with one, while another tried to subdue Jesse who was smacking her with his kettle while simultaneously apologizing for hitting a woman.

But Andrew knew that the tide had changed.

Not a blink later and another dark-haired faerie shot through the broken window in the kitchen and smashed into the attacker who was now trying to grab onto Andrew’s wings. Andrew twisted free as the newcomer quickly knocked out his attacker with a heavy blow to the head. This left Andrew free to grab Jesse’s attacker by the neck, and whisper, with the strength of his birthright, the command for the woman to slumber. She slumped in his arms, and he lowered her to the ground.

“Ever the gentleman,” a wry, feminine voice said behind him.

Andrew sighed, not turning to look at her, as he only had eyes for the wide-eyed Jesse. “Hello, Keira.”

Jesse was too busy staring at Andrew to look anywhere else. “Andrew, you- I- I- Ac- Actually, this makes a lot of sense.”

“Jess?” Andrew said uncertainly.

“You have _wings_ ,” Jesse said, sinking down into one of the few remaining upright chairs.

It wasn’t something Andrew could pretend was a great big misunderstanding – like, what these wings, they’re not real of course, I just carry wing props at all times to defend myself because they’re so useful that way, that’s right. Plain for all to see were his wings that swept downwards from between his shoulderblades towards the floor. They were a velvety, fuzzy black, with translucent segments and an iridescent blue bleeding in a little from the edges.

Keira sighed. “Oh boy, this is going to be a great explanation.”

At that moment, someone kicked down the front door. Keira pulled out a long sword from her scabbard and pointed in that direction, while Jesse shouted, “Stop breaking into my house!”

But Andrew laid a hand on Keira’s arm, because he recognized their life essence long before they came in.

“We’re here to help!” shouted Justin.

Emma crossed her arms and looked around. “Looks like they don’t need it, and I ran those red lights for nothing, asshole.”

Jesse looked harried and his face was flushing with anger. “If everyone is done breaking my windows and door, can someone please tell me what’s going on here?”

Andrew wished that someone didn’t have to be him.

# # # # # # # # # #

After ushering Jesse to the couch, Andrew lured Pisana and Cantino out from where they were hiding. He had an affinity with animals, especially the night-dwelling ones, and they shot out from their hiding places when he called their names softly. Jesse huffed, as if this was an additional affront to the madness that was his day. Andrew shot him an apologetic look and deposited Pisana in Jesse’s room where there were less people to frighten her.

“Do you know you have wings?” Emma asked as Andrew hurried by.

“Yes, I’m aware,” said Andrew, a little mournfully.

“Cool. Just checking.”

He placed Cantino in Jesse’s lap, since he was mostly frightened by the loud noises and was usually fine with people.

“Don’t think a cat in my lap is enough to bribe me,” said Jesse, but his hands were already stroking Cantino who snuggled down obligingly.

Andrew turned to Justin. “Could you fix-” He waved his hand at the broken-down door – it was pretty impressive that Justin managed to kick it down, though in retrospect, it seemed more likely that Emma had been the one to do the kicking – and the smashed windows.

Justin stared at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. At all.”

Andrew gestured at himself and Keira. “I think the cat is pretty much out of the bag.”

“Maybe for you it was,” grumbled Justin. “And what, I didn’t come here to be your handyman, you know.”

Despite the peevish complaints, Justin stepped up to the gaping window in the living room, and waved his hand through the sunlight shining in. The faint, yellow light seemed to catch between his fingers, twisting and lengthening as he twisted his fingers to manipulate them. The sun beams stretched and whirled through the apartment in a twister of light that gathered up the broken glass, furniture and door. By the time Emma had gasped in shock, they were all fixed and whole, slipped back into place. Then Justin flexed his hands and the light snapped back, just plain sunlight pouring through the whole window now.

Jesse lips were pressed together, as if he was determined not to show anymore surprise, though his eyes were wide against his pale face.

“I fixed the way your lock gets stuck on cold days too,” said Justin, clearly just showing off now.

Andrew sank down next to Jesse, gesturing for the others to sit down too. Keira ignored him and started poking around the kitchen instead.

“It might be a bit hard to understand, but I need you to just- just be open-minded when I explain,” said Andrew anxiously.

“Andrew, you have wings coming out from your back. I think we’re as open-minded as we can get right now,” said Emma as she sat down across from them in an armchair, while Justin leaned against the windowpane.

Jesse nodded, waiting for him to continue.

Andrew took a deep breath, and tried, “We’re not exactly human, by definitions of human. We’re faeries, which is why, the wings you know, but Justin and I are different sorts of faerie. That’s why I asked him to mend the door and windows, because it’s daytime, and he’s stronger during the day.”

“You’re bollocksing up the explanation.” Keira walked back into the living room and folded herself gracefully onto the floor with Jesse’s container of palak paneer.

“Keira, lovely to see you again,” said Justin with a wide smile.

“I wish I could say likewise, Justin,” said Keira cheerfully. “But we only ever meet when circumstances aren’t going well, so I can’t.”

Jesse asked, “Are you, are you going to introduce us?”

Andrew winced at his own lack of manners. “Sorry, sorry. Jesse, Emma, this is Keira, my first cousin. Keira, this is Jesse and Emma, as you probably know.”

“As she probably knows? I’m pretty sure we’ve never met,” pointed out Emma.

“I do background checks on all of Andrew’s friends,” said Keira with a faintly apologetic smile, digging into the Indian food with a spoon.

Jesse frowned. “I knocked over the food. Earlier, when, the people- the uh- magic people…”

He trailed off, but Keira got the gist of it. She shrugged. “And Justin magicked it all up again.”

“But it- it was on the floor before. That can’t be sanitary. And I ate some of that already,” said Jesse.

“I’m sure Justin magicked it clean again. I like human food, we shouldn’t let it go to waste,” said Keira between bites.

“Jess, don’t worry about Keira’s iron stomach,” pleaded Andrew. “Did you get my explanation earlier?”

Jesse turned back to him, stroking Cantino thoughtfully. “My Andrew-to-English translator says that you’re both faeries, but Justin is a different specie to you and Keira. His species is stronger, magically I presume, during the daytime. Why?”

“Translating Andrew? That has to be some type of magic too,” murmured Emma.

Except Jesse wasn’t magic. Not at all, not even an ounce, not like how some people were just that little bit gifted and sensitive to magic. Jesse was 100% magicless.  
But he was _Jesse_. And Jesse understood Andrew better than most.

“I’m a Dark faerie, and Justin’s a Light faerie. It’s easier for him to use magic during the day, while I’m better during the night.”

Keira interrupted, “As one of the royal lineage, you would have no problem using magic now if you hadn’t stayed out of Nightlands for so long.”

“Wait, what royal lineage?” asked Jesse.

“Now who’s bollocksing up the story?” Andrew was on the verge of sulking, because this was _not_ how he was going to bring it up.

Emma interjected, “Okay, wait, I think I know the answer to this one, it’s so obvious. You’re a prince, aren’t you? You’re a _fairy prince_?”

Andrew stayed silent for a moment, before shrugging. “Sort of.”

Jesse was not so much patting Cantino now, but more clutching the now disgruntled cat. “What do you mean, ‘sort of’? Th-There is no ‘sort of’ a prince. You either are, or you’re not, you don’t come out at birth and the nurse goes ‘sort of, maybe a prince, check back in thirty years.’”

“Sort of, maybe, because I left ten years ago and haven’t gone back and I’m not sure if I’m still a prince?” said Andrew in a small voice.

“Rubbish. Of course you’re still the prince,” said Keira, pausing in her demolishment of Jesse’s lunch. “You know our customs won’t allow your disinheritance of the throne for no good reason.”

Emma clapped her hands together. “Of course! You’re not just a fairy prince, you’re _the_ fairy prince. You’re going to be the king of whateverlands.”

Jesse was staring off into space now instead of looking at Andrew, which was not something Andrew liked. “For some horrible reason, this makes even more sense.”

Still leaning against the wall and looking fascinated by the whole exchange, Justin finally piped up, “So are you going back to the Otherlands?”

Emma frowned. “Otherlands?”

Keira murmured while staring intently at Andrew. “Otherlands is our world, a different dimension to yours. The Otherlands consist of the Nightlands and Brightlands, where the Dark faeries and Light faeries live in shaky truce.”

“Wait, what- You’re going back there?” asked Jesse faintly.

“No, I’m not. I left because I didn’t want to be the ruler, and the reason still stands,” said Andrew as firmly as possible.

“Uh oh, I don’t think you’ve taken into account the other factors at play now,” said Justin. “That’s why I tried to reach you earlier, to warn you about all this.”

“All what?”

Justin waved his hand languidly as he explained, “You’re almost of age to inherit the throne, your advisors can’t rule for you by proxy anymore. But there are factions within Bright that don’t want you back, beloved prince to the Night people that you are, because they hope it’ll weaken Night if there’s a struggle for the throne.”

Keira cut in, “And there are factions within Night that don’t want you back, because they covet the throne for themselves. As you can see from the attackers today, it seems they have decided to join forces to work towards a common cause.”

“But I don’t want to go back,” exploded Andrew in annoyance.

“Don’t be obtuse. Your wants don’t matter here,” said Keira. “As long as you’re the heir apparent, you’re a threat to their goal, and they’ll work to eliminate this threat. While you remain among humans, you endanger those around you who can’t defend for themselves.”

Andrew processed this statement with a sinking feeling of despair.

Justin spoke into the silence, “Harsh, but true.”

“Ow,” said Jesse out of the blue, flinching when Cantino turned in his lap.

His hand drew back, and Andrew caught him by the wrist. The back of Jesse’s hand had a thin cut that was bleeding freely. Cantino’s fur must have brushed against it.

“Oh,” said Jesse. “I didn’t even, I didn’t realize.”

The sight of Jesse’s blood, it didn’t matter that it wasn’t a very deep wound, was enough to make Andrew’s chest tighten.

“All those flying glass, something must have cut you,” said Andrew, holding his hand gently. “Do you mind if I-”

He waved his free hand vaguely over the long cut on Jesse’s hand. Reading him correctly, Jesse raised his eyebrows but slowly nodded.

Andrew laid his fingers on the cut gently, a butterfly-soft touch that was probably barely felt by Jesse. He thought of Jesse’s hand, whole and unblemished, the injury gone and the blood returned to where it should. He whispered magic through his fingers until he felt the faintest of sliver sharp pain on the back of his own palm. Then he drew away quickly.

“Wow, you can heal injuries,” said Emma in wonder.

Justin murmured, eyes contemplative on Andrew, “Healing magic is only inherited by the heirs to the thrones, Bright or Night.”

“Wait, what is that?” Jesse asked, reaching out with his other hand to grab Andrew’s.

The wound on Jesse’s hand was completely gone, like he had never been cut in the first place, but on the back of Andrew’s hand, there was a faint reddened line, like a wound that had taken a week to heal.

A wound that he didn’t have before.

“You took on the injury instead. This isn’t healing,” said Jesse, the beginnings of shock and anger in his voice.

Andrew shook his head quickly. “No, it is. It’s semi-healing. I’m weak now because I haven’t been to Otherlands for awhile to replenish my main store of magic, so I had to share the injury. But see, there’s barely a closed wound left. I’m not even injured.”

Jesse’s grip on his hand tightened, his eyes shifting to Andrew’s instead. The blue gaze was distinctly unhappy, and Andrew felt a twinge at putting that feeling there.

“You shouldn’t have. I could have healed normally just as easily, without needing you to be hurt too,” said Jesse.

“No, Jess, it’s- It didn’t hurt. It’s nothing, and I’ll always take care of you, you know that right?” said Andrew.

Jesse stared at him, before sighing. “Well, it looks like you have trouble taking care of yourself right now.”

“He’s got you there,” said Justin. “So what’s your decision, Andrew?”

Keira put aside the empty container, looking like a well-fed, satisfied cat. “If you stay, the humans around you might be in danger. If you go back, you will have to play Night politics again.”

Andrew closed his eyes, still clutching Jesse’s hand.

It was no decision in the end.

# # # # # # # # # #

Andrew really didn’t want to go. After agreeing reluctantly to return for a talk with Night’s Wizens, the highest tier of his ruling advisers, he had changed out of his torn T-shirt into an old faerie vest that he never thought he would ever have to wear again. It covered only his lower back and laced at the front, leaving his wings free to stretch out from between his shoulder-blades.

Now, he was dragging his feet around the apartment, half-heartedly picking up his belongings and putting them back down. He hadn’t decided what he was going to do when he went back to the Otherlands yet. He would have to put on a good show of having a strong front so as to stop being a target to those in the Night Circle.

But he didn’t really want to take the throne. The only problem was that there was no easy way to abdicate as crown prince. He had to produce a good reason – something better than ‘but I don’t want to!’ – and he had to prove that whatever he was doing instead of being ruler of Nightlands was worthy of a faerie with royal blood. The other ways to give up his right to the throne would be if he gave up his wings and allowed his magic to be drained from him or if someone challenged him to a fight to the death. In the first case, death was a possibility as well.

So he was basically going back to try to sound out his options with the Wizens, the council of older faerie who governed Nightlands. He somehow doubted that a profession as a human actor would be deemed worthy enough by the Wizens.

Keira explained all of this to Jesse and Emma as Andrew procrastinated, including the part about how unlikely it was that he would be able to give up the throne without dying in some terrible way.

Refusing to believe that he would never return to Jesse’s apartment, Andrew only took a couple books and his iPhone – he would need Angry Birds based on how boring Wizens could be.

Andrew looked forlornly around the living room. “I suppose…I guess I’m ready.”

At that point, Jesse stood up quickly. “You don’t have to go.”

Andrew’s heart expanded at the words. “Really?”

Jesse nodded, then shook his head. “I mean, if you want to go, then you should, and I will totally understand because you get to be a- a _king_ , but- but, Andrew, if you don’t want to, you shouldn’t.”

Keira interjected, “The Dark and Light faeries won’t stop coming, and you’ll be in danger if he stays here.”

“That doesn’t matter,” snapped Jesse, before biting his lower lip. But he didn’t apologize, and he forged on instead, “Riding a bicycle in New York is dangerous, crossing the road is dangerous. This is just one extra danger on top of a lot of dangers, and if Andrew doesn’t want to go, then he shouldn’t.”

“Only you would compare crossing the road to being attacked,” said Andrew, his voice warm with fondness.

“The old ladies in New York are a menace behind the wheel, and you know it,” said Jesse with just the faintest tremor in his voice.

It was enough for Andrew to look away sadly. “I have to go though, Jess. I can’t bear if anything happened to you, to anyone, I mean.”

Jesse looked like he was two seconds away from grabbing onto Andrew and giving him a good shake, but Emma leapt to her feet and interrupted them.

“Look, how about we all go?” she asked. “Can’t we all go and check things out? Andrew hasn’t been back there for years, I’m sure he would like some familiar faces with him. We can be his support group.”

Keira frowned. “There are the occasional human visitors, but I don’t know if this is a good idea.”

“I think it’s genius,” said Justin smoothly. “You have to address the fact that the heir apparent was attacked as well, and Jesse can be a witness to the lack of provocation for their attack. Emma can be witness to my attempts to assist, which will help clear the air about whether all of Brightlands are after Night’s royal blood.”

Keira didn’t look convinced. “The older faeries won’t be very interested in human accounts…”

Justin pointed out, “Look, if they don’t come along, Andrew is going to be a giant, moping baby for _ages_.”

“Hey!”

“Good point,” sighed Keira. “Alright, let’s all go then. But there are a few rules.”

Jesse and Emma nodded eagerly.

# # # # # # # # # #

\------------------------

Rules for Humans entering the Otherlands

1\. Do not talk to strange faeries.

2\. Do not follow strange faeries into flying spheres or onto large birds.

3\. Do not eat candy offered by strange faeries.

\------------------------

Jesse frowned. “I think we covered these rules when we were in preschool.”

“Really? Humans are truly advanced these days,” said Keira blithely.

“Are strange faeries a euphemism for pedophiles?” muttered Emma.

“Wait, follow onto _large birds_?”

# # # # # # # # # #

Andrew thought that Jesse would be afraid. It wasn’t like he thought of bringing Jesse to Nightlands a lot, the very opposite in fact. But the moment Keira had agreed to bring them along, Andrew had started worrying that Jesse would be a wreck. Jesse didn’t like change. He was a homebody, and the Otherlands was as far away from home as a human could get short of going to the moon.

But Jesse wasn’t a wreck. He was staring around in awe, asking question after question, and surprising Andrew all over again. Emma was just as amazed, Andrew could tell, but she tried a lot harder to be cool about it.

He tried to see it from their eyes.

It had started with Keira tracing a long line of silver light in the air, dragging it wider with her fingers. Then she had stepped sideways into it and vanished, to the further surprise of Jesse and Emma. The remarkable sight to humans was just a common method of travelling between the human world and the Otherlands, by opening a Lightway between the two dimensions.

They had entered straight into Nightlands, one half of the Otherlands. The closest Lightway to the Night Circle was in the Circle’s Forest. As heir to the throne, Andrew was the only one who could open a Lightway straight into the Night Circle, but he was too depleted of moonlight to work such strong magic.

As always, the Circle’s Forest was bathed in a silver light, an ethereal glow that emitted from the rustling trees as well as the low hanging moon in the sky. Andrew remembered how disconcerting it was at first when he visited the human world and realized that their natural source of light only came from the sky, rather than from all around.

They were surrounded by silver trees that towered over them, pale leaves forming a sparse, glowing canopy high up above. There were scattered wild plants that bore glimmering fruits and flowers in jewel-tone colors, attracting small bright birds and wispy insects. The forest wasn’t dense, but it was completely void of a path to follow, because those who were supposed to traverse the forest didn’t need a path.

Standing in the forest, soaking up the soothing, quiet glow, Andrew felt his wings stretch and flutter as his innate magic started singing through his veins again.

_Welcome back, our Prince. Welcome back._

_Come fly with us, fly-_

The wind whispered to him, tinkling laughter that brushed against him as the trees rustled.

_Not now_ , Andrew thought. Much as his wings ached to feel the wind beneath them, he had other responsibilities.

While Jesse and Emma were still look around curiously, Keira turned to Andrew. “Are you able to summon anything?”

Andrew rolled his eyes. “I was away, not _dead_.”

“Wait, what are you summoning?” asked Jesse curiously.

But Andrew had already started, sighing to the moonbeams his need and feeling the caressing touch of silver light swirl around him before dancing off in search of his summons.

Less than a minute later, a large white stag followed by four brown, but equally large deer made their way daintily through the underbrush. The white stag immediately pushed his way over to Andrew, nosing him in the cheek. Andrew laughed.

“You’ve grown,” whispered Andrew against the noble creature’s muzzle.

“And hopefully not much more growing to go, because they’re _huge_ ,” murmured Jesse, which Andrew supposed that was true when compared to the deer humans had.

Emma asked, “So, what, you can just call any woodland creatures to do whatever you like?”

“I can ask them, I can’t make them,” said Andrew.

“Andrew has an affinity with deer, so it’s unlikely that they’ll say no,” added Justin.

“I’m not surprised,” murmured Jesse, which was a little confusing so Andrew just turned to look at him. At the same time, one of the other deer came up to Andrew and rubbed its neck against his shoulder.

Jesse held his hands up. “Oh no, don’t look here, that’s just too many doe-eyed gazes in close proximity.”

Andrew frowned. “Sometimes, you make no sense at all.”

“I could say the same about you,” said Jesse with a faint smile.

“Are we done chit-chatting yet?” asked Emma impatiently.

“Yes, fine, let’s go,” said Andrew with a huff, still confused.

The other deer moved to stand beside their chosen riders while Andrew swung himself easily up onto Windless’ back.

Emma stared at the brown deer waiting patiently next to her. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

# # # # # # # # # #

An hour’s journey of picking their way slowly through the woods was considerably shortened to twenty minutes with the deer nimbly running between and around trees and shrubbery. It wasn’t long before Andrew was slipping off the stag’s back, the first to reach their destination.

Andrew stroked Windless’ long arched neck, reaching up to scratch around his antlers when Windless nibbled on his hair affectionately. He waited as Emma and Jesse’s deer pranced out of the woods with their riders clinging on for dear life. Keira had already dismounted, while Justin was just a few seconds ahead of Emma and Jesse.

“Why can’t you guys use horses like the rest of modern society,” grumbled Justin, sliding off his deer awkwardly.

The deer he was riding – Littlefeet, Andrew knew her as – head-butted Justin in the shoulder lightly, letting out a huff of annoyance before she turned around and went back into the forest with a flick of her tail.

“Affinity with deer, remember?” pointed out Andrew.

Emma wobbled off her own transport with Justin’s help, as Andrew hurried over to Jesse.

“That was-” Jesse took a deep breath, grabbing onto Andrew’s hand as he slid off the deer. “That was _insane_. Amazing, but totally insane.”

“You like insane, admit it.”

“Excuse me, you must have mistaken me for my risk-taking evil twin,” said Jesse, though he was smiling widely.

Andrew returned the grin.

He knew that despite Jesse’s worries and objections, he did enjoy the occasional excitement. That was why they had gone zip-lining while in Mexico, an activity Jesse had suggested in a bout of drunken hilarity, and Andrew had held him to it.

The first ride on a deer was always exhilarating and frightening. Deer were nimble and light-footed creatures, naturally more prone to run in weaving turns and leaps to avoid being caught by predators. It made for a bumpy ride through the forest. Andrew remembered his first time, bending low with his arms flung around Windless. The trees had seemed to fly past him, and he had been convinced that they were going to careen into a tree or boulder every twenty seconds. But he had learned to hold on tight, to enjoy the rush of air and Windless’ sure-footed gait.

Keira’s next words broke through Andrew’s reminiscing. “They know we’re here. We should go in now, or it’ll be worse if they become impatient.”

Andrew sighed even as they all stepped closer to the entrance to the Circle. It was a huge arch set in a gigantic structure that comprised of countless living trees and plants. The structure glowed a silver light that was paler and brighter than the trees in the forest that surrounded the entire structure. The structure was too large to properly see from where they were, but Andrew knew it was circular in shape, with a hundred meter diameter. Hundreds of Dark faerie lived here, those of royal blood, the elders and the bureaucrats as well.

There was no door within the arch, only a pleasingly coiled web of branches and vines and leaves. They might look pretty and delicate, but no one had been able to penetrate the closed entrance using force since the Dividing Wars, where Light and Dark faerie wrenched apart as one harmonious race and split the land in half.

Now, the only way to gain entrance to the Circle was if you were meant to be there.

Andrew had been meant for the Circle since his birth.

He stepped up to the arch and laid a hand on the coiled vines. A small green bud immediately unfurled from the vine and bloomed in a soft ‘poof’ into a delicate white flower with many petals. A faint flare of light emitted from the flower, and in a loud whisper of branches and leaves sliding, the closed entrance slithered apart to leave an empty, silver archway.

Andrew turned to look at them. “Welcome to my home.”

The Circle was ostentatious in its combination between the natural and the magnificent. The archway led to a staircase, a wide monstrosity that consisted of shining ebony steps and twining banisters. Making their way to the top of the staircase, Jesse and Emma startled at the sight of what passed as architecture in the Otherlands. The wide staircase branched off into six different pathways that wound up and down, left and right seemingly without much order. Each pathway was made of more ebony and vines, fused together naturally but unmistakably molded by outside forces. Further along, the pathways either branched again or joined with the myriad network of pathways that stretched out above them.

The pathways led to the huge, curving walls of the Circle, some of them joining to huge chambers that sprouted out from the walls or hung down from high, high above. So high did the Circle go, and with so many chambers and pathways between them, that they couldn’t see the end of the Circle from where they stood. Adding to the natural and beautiful chaos that was Andrew’s home were faeries moving around the Circle, fluttering through the air or walking along the pathways. No one turned to look at them.

Not yet anyway.

“Um, where are we going?” asked Jesse tentatively.

“All the way to the top,” Andrew said.

Emma stared up. “That’s a long way to walk.”

“Who said anything about walking?” asked Keira, stretching out her wings from between the laces of her more ornate, dark vest. Her forewings were a snowy white while her hindwings were orangey, with black jagged stripes streaking through all her wings. She flapped her tiger wings a few times, and her feet lifted off the ground.

Justin stepped forward towards Emma and offered her a hand. “Mi’lady?”

He grinned at her disconcerted look.

“You’ve got wings too?” she asked.

All this while, Justin had kept his wings hidden away in his back. With an unnecessary air of weighted importance, he turned around and shrugged off his shirt before dropping it on the ground. Formerly invisible, two thin slits shivered to existence on his back.

Justin summoned his wings, and they unfurled from his back in an explosion of color and dramatics. Jesse and Emma stared. His wings were huge – taller than he was – and they stood up tall and wide, like spread butterfly wings. They were just as brightly colored, a shock of black stripes and spots against cerulean blue and vivid orangey-reds, the color of sunset spreading across wide blue skies. Of course Jesse and Emma were impressed by his colors, the peacock-proud shades of a true Light faerie. Andrew scuffed his sneakers against the living wood that was the floor, holding his plainer wings closer to his back. Dark faeries rarely measured up aesthetically to Light faeries.

“If you drop me, Timberlake, or put your hands where they shouldn’t be, I’ll kick your ass,” said Emma with a frown, even as she stepped forward and put an arm around his bare shoulders.

“I would never,” said Justin, mock injured as he slipped an arm around her waist.

Andrew came up to Jesse and offered his hand silently. Jesse stared at his fluttering wings before smiling at Andrew like he was trying to comfort him. It felt like Andrew should be the one comforting Jesse, he usually was in strange situations, but Andrew’s trepidation at the upcoming meeting must have shown. Jesse surprised him by turning around and pressing his back against Andrew’s front.

“Feels like it would be safer this way and less awkward,” said Jesse over his shoulder.

Andrew obligingly wrapped his arms around Jesse’s waist and waited for Jesse to hold onto his arms. “I’m all for less awkward.”

On his weaker days, Andrew had imagined moments where he could wrap his arms around Jesse just like this, pressing in so close he could smell his herbal shampoo and the clean scent that was Jesse under that. While he enjoyed the feel of Jesse’s lean body in his arms, he never would have imagined that they would end up in such a position because he was going to _fly_ with Jesse.

His imagination had involved much funner scenarios than this, to be honest.

He spread his wings, and they lifted up slowly. When he felt his body adjust to Jesse’s weight in his arms, he let his magic surge in him, and they shot up in a burst of speed.

Jesse’s grip was tight around his arms, but Andrew’s grip around his waist was tighter still. His wings fluttered at a blinding speed, and they soared upwards very quickly. Wind streamed through their hair as Andrew darted between pathways and around chambers.

“This shouldn’t be possible!” yelled Jesse. “Our body mass plus your thin wings are flying against the face of physics.”

Andrew laughed at the bad joke, and answered, “We’re flying with magic, not physics.”

His presence finally gained notice. Other faeries soared up with him, pointing and chattering amongst themselves in excitement. The younger faerie came closer and kept up with their flight, shouting greetings at him.

“Prince! Our Prince, you’re back!” shouted an excitable young faerie with dark scarlet wings.

Andrew smiled at her, but refrained from answering. He didn’t want to raise anyone’s hopes when he wasn’t so keen on being back himself.

The news of his return seemed to spread like wildfire through the Circle, and soon, more faerie were pouring out of the chambers and clustering around walkways to catch a glimpse of him.

“You’re popular,” said Jesse, words swept up by the wind and almost inaudible.

Andrew made a face that Jesse couldn’t see, and explained, “No, the heir apparent is popular. Most of them don’t really know who I am. They just like looking at royalty.”

“So, um, you’re the Kate Middleton of Nightlands?” He could hear laughter in Jesse’s voice.

“Excuse me, I’m the Prince William of Nightlands,” objected Andrew.

“But you would look so nice in that white dress,” teased Jesse.

I would wear one if you wanted me to, thought Andrew a little maniacally as he flew after Keira through the air filled with faerie now.

Before he could answer aloud, they reached the upmost platform and landed on it. The platform was small, leading to the highest chambers that took up the entire area. Andrew released his grip on Jesse and waved at a few faerie who had flew up to see him as well.

He turned towards the arched entrance, realizing that it was already open.

There was no need to call on the Wizens, because they were already there. They must have been waiting for him the moment he stepped into the Circle.

He exchanged glances with the others on the platform. Jesse looked openly worried, while Emma was too busy looking a little sick that they were so high up. Justin was carefully neutral while Keira was busy peering into the chamber to see who were in attendance.

“After you, mi’lord,” said Keira, waving her hand in a way that looked less deferential and more impatient.

Andrew took a deep breath and walked into the chamber.

# # # # # # # # # #

The highest chamber looked like it hadn’t changed in the years Andrew had been away. The room was a gnarled indoor garden, branches spouting from the Circle’s curved walls and branching into seats, perches, reclining benches. Vines and flowers had been coaxed to grow and bloom all year round, an explosion of lushness and color more intense than the natural, soft beauty out in the Circle’s Forest.

It was enough to give Andrew a headache.

A younger faerie standing by the side of the chamber hollered, "THE PRINCE HAS ARRIVED, ALONG WITH HIS PROTECTOR. GUESTS ARE THE YOUNG LIGHT, JUSTIN, AND THE PRINCE’S HUMAN GUESTS."

Andrew could almost feel Emma opening her mouth to make a snarky comment, but Justin elbowed her in the side and whispered, "Don’t say anything. Whatever you guys do, _don’t say anything here_."

There was no time for anymore cautions. Andrew knew his part to play and strode forward with conviction he didn’t feel. Keeping just a step behind him was Keira.

"Why have we not gotten rid of the herald yet?" grumbled an old faerie with long white hair tied into a waterfall of braids. "The day we rely on his voice instead of our own eyes is the day you can eject us old sods from the Wizens."

Andrew smiled at that. "Uncle Phineas, please leave poor Cain alone."

"He’s my grandson, I can suggest his retrenchment if I like," sniffed Phineas, arranging his braids fussily.

Everyone ignored the spluttering of Cain, the underappreciated herald.

"Wizens," said Andrew with a clear, ringing voice. "The Night Prince addresses you."

That was all the formality they needed. A few of the older, more traditional faerie relaxed their stiff spines, and settled into the loving arch of the branches from the walls. Some of the faerie simply reclined on the grassy ground of the chambers, watching Andrew with rapt gazes.

"Oh darling, it’s so good to see you!" cooed an older, curvy faerie, her pale blue translucent wings beating frantically in apparent delight. "I didn’t think you would ever come back, what changed your mind?"

"An assassination attempt, Janis. I don’t know if I have changed my mind yet, but I can’t stay away until I get this resolved," said Andrew with a shrug.

Janis’ wings slowed down. "How crass. These Light faeries, they really must be taught a lesson."

An irritated young faerie perched on an overhanging branch called out, "What’s _that_ Light faerie doing here then?"

Justin sketched a mocking half-bow. "Justin, twelfth removed from the throne. I haven’t been back to the Otherlands for a few years, but surely the truce still holds? Has there been a change in laws on visiting faerie?"

"Regardless of the laws, it’s not like we want your kind in our highest chamber, among us Wizens," sneered the man, stretching out his huge, dark brown wings, revealing a symmetrical pattern that resembled huge owl eyes.

"Oh, don’t be tedious, Edward," snapped another faerie from across the room, crossing her legs as she shifted on an oversized mushroom. "Light faeries are good enough to bend you over a log for a quickie, but they aren’t good enough to breathe your same air in the high chambers?"

"You pollen-breathing, dew-swilling, fish-fucker!" snapped Edward in his fury.

Ah, Andrew was strongly reminded of the reasons why he hated being the Night prince. Having to hold court over a bunch of whiny bureaucrats _everyday_ would drive him batty. How did politicians do this? Why would they even want to?

Keira said sharply, "Stop. Edward and Rooney, this is a shameful display."

Rooney looked away with a huff, and pretended not to feel chastised, while Edward sunk into a sullen, grumpy silence. Keira was always better at commandeering respect.

Andrew spoke up, "Justin is my guest. He came to protect me when he believed I was in danger, which proves his intentions. I welcome his attendance."

There was a murmur of discussion over this morsel of news, some pleased with the outcome, while others were disgruntled.

Another faerie that Andrew did not recognize, all wild dark hair and silver eyed with wispy, almost feathery gray wings, sat up from his nest of coiled branches and leaves. "Are you saying that Keira, your very own protector, didn’t come to your rescue? That you had to wait for a Light faerie to save you?"

"A spineless worm challenges my ability to protect the Prince?" asked Keira with snapping heat. "Do you want to test my skills in combat?"

"I’m not the royal protector, loyal guard dog. That’s hardly a fair fight," pointed out the other faerie, flipping his hand dismissively.

"Translation; Jon’s manhood does not measure up to Keira’s," murmured Rooney, blithely nibbling on the rose petals she plucked from a large, crimson bloom when Jon turned an angry glare at her.

For a brief moment, Andrew had a craving for the taste of rose petals, the sweetness edged with sharp bitterness. It had been a long time since he had any.

He pulled himself back to more pressing matters. "Keira protected me of course. These baseless accusations about her ability, something no one who knows her would doubt, are pointless and a waste of time." He said that last bit to Jon with a fair bit of irritation. "Justin came anyway to lend a hand, as he didn’t know the numbers that were sent against me."

Janis alighted to the ground and clutched her hands together. "Well, it’s all good that you’re back here regardless. You’ll be better protected back in Nightlands and no assassins would be able to get to you."

"I would feel safer if there hadn’t also been Dark faeries involved in the attack," said Andrew.

"What?" Janis asked, freezing.

"Dark faeries who were assaulting their own Prince," said Keira.

"Could this be a mistake?" asked Edward, leaning forward on his elbows.

"Do you doubt my ability to recognize our own kind?" Keira asked.

Andrew interrupted the oncoming posturing that could go on forever. "They were immune to pure moonlight, and resisted my command to sleep until I gained skin contact. That should be evidence enough."

He didn’t explain that they were still unconscious, and Keira had called for the other Protectors to come pick them up from Jesse’s apartment. Maybe a round of interrogation would reveal who they were working for, but Andrew wasn’t holding up much hope for that. He didn’t intend to tell the Wizens anymore though.

"They must be mad men, to attempt this attack," commented Thom, one of the remaining Wizens who had kept silent so far.

Andrew folded his arms in impatience. "Let’s not pretend to be dumb here. It’s obvious that there’s a power struggle in Nightlands as well, and my being gone would suit a few people here."

Jon spluttered, "You’re not really implying-"

Phineas interrupted, "Regardless of all the speculation, your being back resolves all these problems. It’s safer for you here."

Andrew clenched his hands into fists, fruitless anger with no real outlet. "What if I don’t want to take the throne?"

"Oh no, not this again," grumbled Rooney, powering down the remaining petals like they were popcorn.

Keira hissed, "Andrew, you don’t know what you’re-"

Jon called out, "Does the protector speak for the Prince now?"

"You cannot be serious!" fluttered Janis.

Phineas shouted above the outbreak of voices, "You know what this really means, Prince! The laws have not changed!"

The voices sank into unsettled silence.

"I know," said Andrew, trying to hold back a wince.

Phineas glared, "If you really knew, you wouldn’t suggest it. You are opening yourself up to a challenge for the throne, a fight to the death?"

"What?" Andrew heard Jesse speak up for the first time. "Wait, _what_?"

Keira stepped forward, standing very close to Andrew’s side and just half a step behind him, as if her looming presence was to say that anyone who dared to challenge him would have to fight her too.

"You know you have no say in this, Keira. You cannot fight this battle for the Prince," pointed out Edward, looking intrigued.

The Prince this, the Prince that. Andrew was getting thoroughly sick of being seen as only ‘the Prince’ after being back for all of fifteen minutes. It was like the name Andrew didn’t exist in any of their vocabulary.

Jon looked almost gleeful at this whole idea. He actually stood up and took a few paces forward. Andrew didn’t take it too personally, as he knew most Night faeries would turn up for a challenge to the death if it went ahead, the last one having being done a millennium ago.

Except Jon was clearly thinking about the other option, because he said, "Of course, the other way to abdicate the throne is to give up your wings, see if you survive them being ripped off your back. We would have to wait for the full moon, pin the wings to the entrance of the Circle-"

He could hear Jesse’s voice from behind him. "What the _hell_?"

Justin shushed him, "We’ll talk later, remember what I said."

"Damn what you said, he can’t be serious," hissed Emma.

"Andrew, what are you doing?" asked Jesse urgently.

Not happy to be interrupted, Jon’s silver eyes flickered to them. "Your humans look adorable, but are terribly untrained. Halt their tongues, or I’ll remove those flapping appendages."

Andrew felt the flicker of anger at being forced back to Nightlands flare to a red hot fury. "Don’t threaten my guests."

An older female faerie leaned down from her perch close to the ceiling. "I will take the curly-haired one. He looks like a puppy, and I’ve always wanted a pet human."

Without even realizing it, Andrew’s wings beat once, and light swirled around his hands. "Jesse is under _my protection_ , and no one here will touch him as long as I live."

There was a moment of stunned silence. Andrew glared up at the petite faerie in anger, meeting her surprised gaze with an angry, determined stare.

"The same goes for the others," he added, when he realized what a claim he was making on Jesse alone.

The faeries continued to stare at him like he had lost his mind.

Justin clapped his hands once, breaking the silence. "Well then, your Prince has spoken. You’ve all heard him."

Andrew took a deep breath and turned to Phineas, his mother’s brother. "Uncle, is there no other way? By right -"

Phineas held up a hand. "It’s obviously been a stressful day for all, as you have just been attacked and now you’re back in Nightlands after years away. I suggest we all rest for the night before we convene again tomorrow evening."

"Agreed," piped up Rooney.

Edward watched Andrew. "Agreed. You need to cool your thoughts, Andrew."

For all that Edward clashed opinions with many in the room, he had always been kind to Andrew when Andrew was a child.

"Agreed," sighed Andrew.

"ONE PROPOSAL, THREE AGREEMENTS, SO WITNESSED," boomed out Herald Cain. "THE WIZENS WILL BREAK FOR THE NIGHT."

Phineas rolled his eyes. "Oh for God’s sake, we can count, Cain."

"Propriety, Phineas, there’s nothing wrong with it," sniffed Janis.

Andrew rubbed his forehead. Seriously, how was this his life? Why did he have to deal with this?

# # # # # # # # # #

Andrew and Keira led the others to a room that had grown into place during their meeting with the Wizens. It was situated right next to the Wizen’s chamber, and took up the rest of the space right at the very top of the Circle. The tightly woven branches and flowers had grown and stretched to form the large room in response to Andrew’s presence in the Circle, and he knew that it would look exactly the same as the room he had before he had left.

Unlike their initial trip into the Circle, Jesse and Emma were far less blown away by the surroundings. In fact, they didn’t seem to notice at all that the room hadn’t existed when they first flew up.

They were too angry to notice.

"What the fuck, Garfield," snapped Emma, rounding on him immediately.

Andrew didn’t meet her gaze, and he could feel his wings stretching back in defensiveness. "I’m the heir to the throne, it’s not something I can just turn down easily."

"But you never said you had to fight to the death for it! Or- Or tear out your wings," she said, hands thrown up in horror.

He saw Justin wince at her words, probably imagining the horror of having his own wings forcibly removed.

Jesse stepped closer, which made Andrew look at him immediately. "You- Why did you come back here? If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have to make this choice."

"It’s, well, I hate it, but it’s my responsibility. Maybe I could have run forever, if there wasn’t any threat to you, all of you, but it would have been cowardly. It wouldn’t have been fair," said Andrew, struggling for the right words.

"Because you’re the Prince. And the people need their Prince," said Jesse, staring at him with unreadable blue eyes.

Andrew shrugged, looking away. "The Wizens can’t rule indefinitely, and they would have been forced to make a decision to drag me back, or fall into a power struggle once I turned thirty years old. I’ve been irresponsible." He sighed. "I guess I can’t be irresponsible forever."

"So your only choices are to try to kill someone else in a battle to the death, or have your wings removed?" asked Emma, incredulous.

"Removed and see if he survives," said Keira quietly. "It’s a traumatic injury. It strips faeries of their magic."

Andrew sighed. "I was hoping to abdicate the throne without fuss. In the past, one of the heirs unrelated to the current line abdicated due to a prior claim to his life, because he had been promised away by his parents when he was a baby. The other party made a claim on the promise just before he took the throne."

"It was a very different case, Andrew," cut in Keira. "And there is no such claim on you."

It was true, but Andrew had been hoping to sort of just talk a lot, and make his case, and prayed for leniency or for the Wizens to disinherit him in disgust at his lack of Princely qualities.

"So it’s back to death by combat or death by wings destruction," said Emma in her typical blunt way.

Jesse said, his voice just as quiet, "Or you could stay. Be king."

"But he doesn’t want to stay," said Emma to Jesse.

"At least he would still be alive," pointed out Justin, wincing when Emma slapped him in the arm for his contribution.

"Only you could end up in a situation where becoming a king is a negative outcome," said Jesse in a huff, a poor attempt at his dry humor.

Andrew tried to tamp down on his sadness. "It’s very ‘poor little rich boy’ of me, but I have never wanted to be King."

That ended all conversation for awhile, an almost depressive cloud suffocating the lightness out of the room.

Justin finally spoke up, "Look, you guys need to talk. And really figure out what you want to do."

Keira eyed all of them. "What is there to do?"

"Just, talk. Alright? Talk about your _feelings_ and all," ordered Justin, pointing at Andrew and making strangely crazy eyes at him. "I need to go back to Brightlands for the night, or my father will kill me for coming to Otherlands and not visiting him."

Keira nodded at him. "That’s a good decision. I’ll visit my father tonight."

"Wait, aren’t you Andrew’s, um, protector?" asked Jesse, face scrunching up in a frown. "There were those Dark faeries who attacked him too, he’s not really safe here."

"Contrary to how he looks-"

"Hey!"

" _Contrary to how he looks_ , Andrew is the Prince, and he’s in the heart of Night’s Circle. With the magic so close to hand, no one he doesn’t want to can touch him here," explained Keira.

Jesse eyed Andrew, as if he wasn’t terribly convinced by that, but Andrew just shrugged at him. What Keira said was true, but he supposed it was pretty hard to believe unless they saw it firsthand.

Justin turned to Emma. "Do you want to visit the Brightlands with me? It’s rather different. Much less mood-lighting than here, for one."

Emma looked intrigued but a little skeptical, to which Justin immediately crossed his heart, "I’ll keep you safe and unharmed, cross my heart, hope to die."

"Gee, that sure is comforting," said Emma, rolling her eyes.

"It _should_ be comforting," said Keira, tapping her foot.

"What?"

Andrew tried to explain, "To faeries, verbal contracts that are witnessed by another party are as good as signed contracts in the human world."

"That’s why I stressed the ‘no talking around strange faeries’ rule," said Keira. "You’re perfectly safe with Justin. If he lets anything happen to you, his magic will start draining away enough until he compensates for breaking his word."

"That…sounds terrible," said Emma, making a face.

"Yeah," said Andrew morosely. "Try living like that in the human world."

"Alright, are we gonna stand around here yammering all day, or can we go already?" asked Justin, big hand gestures and all.

After Emma hugged both Andrew and Jesse, whispering something into Jesse’s ear that made him flush and stutter adorably, they all finally left the room. Andrew realized that Justin hadn’t offered to take Jesse along, and Jesse hadn’t protested being left behind, to which he was grateful to both of them. He really wouldn’t handle being abandoned by everyone very well, especially if it was Jesse doing the abandonment.

Keira gave Andrew’s shoulder a squeeze and left him with a final murmured, "You might only have one night left with him. Don’t waste it, cousin."

Which was frankly terrifying. He didn’t want to have just one night with Jesse. He was supposed to have as many more nights left with his friend as he liked. And was he so easy to read that Keira immediately knew about his- his _feelings_ for Jesse? Light, did Jesse know?

While Andrew fidgeted beside his table, Jesse wandered around the room and trailed his fingers along the organic, living walls. The room really was an exact replica of Andrew’s old room. It was big, with a bed behind a curtained wall to one corner of the room, and a long table against the opposite wall. There were curved ornate chairs near the table, the curlicue pattern on their legs matching the ones scrawling across the top of the walls. There were books and scrolls in little cubbyholes all around the room, natural shelves embedded in the walls. When Andrew had been away, the Circle had closed away all the belongings he had left behind, kept them safe until he came back.

Stopping at the round window, Jesse touched the spherical bottles of moonlight hanging under Andrew’s window frame. They tinkled softly to his touch, and soft tendrils of moonlight within the glass swirled with the movement. Later, Andrew would stopper up one and take it to replace the one he had broken to subdue the Light faeries at Jesse’s apartment. For now, he just watched Jesse’s enchanted expression.

Jesse’s rapt attention was next turned to Andrew.

"Your wings, um," Jesse started, staring behind Andrew for awhile.

"It’s a bit weird, I know," said Andrew self-consciously.

Jesse shook his head. "No, they’re- They look amazing."

Andrew felt something uncurl within him, at the thought that Jesse had said that about _his_ wings, and hadn’t even said anything close to that when Justin had showed off his fancy wings.

"Can I see them?" asked Jesse, his uncertainty melting away slowly, returning to the usual level of familiarity between them.

Andrew nodded, turning around so that Jesse could see his wings better. He felt Jesse come close, standing right behind him as he inspected the lowered black wings.

"Those black powdery things I found around my apartment sometimes, those were from your wings, weren’t they?"

Andrew’s wings flapped once, as if in acknowledgment to the attention being paid to them. "Yeah. They’re wing dust. Sorry about that, but sometimes, it just feels really good to stretch out my wings."

"How do you keep your wings hidden away? You walk around the apartment in a towel often enough," said Jesse in a strangely wry tone. "I never noticed any wings."

Jesse’s innate curiosity was showing up now after being pushed aside for so long for other more urgent matters. Andrew was always happy to satisfy that curiosity.

"I can show you. It’ll be easier than explaining. But I’ll have to take off my vest," said Andrew with a little shrug.

"Remember the thing I said less than twenty seconds ago about you walking around in a towel?" asked Jesse.

Feeling sufficiently mocked, Andrew unlaced the sides of his vest and slipped them off his bare arms.

He started curling and folding his wings, drawing them up instinctively to his back. They should be too big to fit, but his wings weren’t actually stiff butterfly wings. They curled in half, each wing drew close to the opposite shoulder until they lay almost flat against his skin and melded to his contours. The soft, slightly fuzzy sensation of the wings against his skin shivered into place until he slowly lost feeling to his wings. He knew that they would be fading into the color of his skin, the outline of the wings barely perceptible against his back.

With the whisper of magic against his back, an enchantment completely hid away even that faint shadow.

"Wow, that’s-" Jesse trailed off, at a lost for words.

Andrew looked over his shoulder. "Weird?"

"Amazing," said Jesse firmly, looking him in the eye. "You can let them out again, if it’s, uh, it’s more comfortable."

It was more comfortable. He didn’t feel pain from his wings being tucked away, but after having them concealed for a long time, it felt good to stretch them out. Like the prickling feeling of a cramp averted as blood flowed into the muscles again. He stretched his back, and let his wings uncurl from his back once again.

Unlike Justin’s and Keira’s wings, his weren’t held upright and splayed open. His wings stretched downwards, like a wasp’s wings, and was long enough that he had to hold them stiff to keep them from touching the ground. When he didn’t hold them ready, they dragged behind him on the ground, like a black, dramatic cape spouting from his back.

Andrew turned to face Jesse sheepishly. "I know it’s weird. All this happening, and you didn’t get any warning. You know I really didn’t plan to tell you this way."

"How were you planning to?" asked Jesse curiously.

Andrew scuffed the floor with his shoes. "Maybe with a diagram and all?"

Jesse smiled, flashing his dimples. "Yeah, that would have been a lot less frightening."

Stepping a little closer, Andrew squeezed Jesse’s elbow as he said, "I’m sorry for throwing this at you."

There was a brief moment of silence, whereby Andrew felt his stomach sink as he wondered if Jesse did feel like Andrew’s secrets had endangered him, and maybe after all the weeks where Andrew took advantage of Jesse’s hospitability, this would be the thing to tarnish their friendship.

"Andrew, coming here, riding on a deer, flying- It’s scary. I think I haven’t stopped being scared since those people broke in through my windows, and um, I’m still waiting to wake up in cold sweat from a very strange dream. But the thought of you coming here alone, and, and fighting to your _death_ , that’s _terrifying_."

Andrew’s hand slid down from Jesse’s elbow to his hand, holding on tightly to Jesse’s slightly clammy palm. "I’m glad you’re here, Jesse. And I don’t want to, I really don’t want to fight. But I don’t want to stay. I don’t belong here."

Jesse bit his lower lip. "I hate that you might never come back, but I can’t- Just the thought of you fighting or- or having your wings-"

In the silver light, Jesse looked almost monochrome with how pale he turned. Andrew made a soft sound of distress and wrapped his arms around him.

"I’m sorry," whispered Andrew, unable to make any promises.

Jesse hugged him back, burying his face in Andrew’s shoulder. His soft curls tickled Andrew’s neck, and he breathed shallowly for a moment.

"You can’t die," whispered Jesse in return.

Then Andrew felt him turn his head, and he didn’t understand it at first, couldn’t quite parse the localized softness against his skin. But there was an exhalation of warm air, and he realized what he was feeling, that he was feeling the press of warm lips against his neck. Andrew gasped.

Jesse had kissed his neck.

He didn’t, he couldn’t be misunderstanding this. You didn’t kiss friends like this, not after what they had just been talking about. Fuck, he was just tired of trying to keep this under wraps, and what did he have to lose at this point, if he was walking to his death tomorrow?

When Andrew turned his head, it was like their lips just naturally slotted together. Heads tilted, their lips brushed together for a moment, before they both pressed closer, turning a chaste kiss into something infinitely _more_.

Andrew could only register _heat, soft, wet_. These were Jesse’s lips he was kissing. This was Jesse kissing him back.

He breathed in sharply through his nose, clutched Jesse closer to him as he felt Jesse’s hand curved tightly around his neck. They kissed, and kissed, mouths opening to engage in slick exploration, lips mouthed and sucked and bitten. There was no build up, just a sudden, all-consuming intensity, and a natural rightness to what they were doing.

When they finally pulled apart, they couldn’t seem to bear to go further than a few inches away from each other. Andrew’s eyes couldn’t stop dipping down to Jesse’s swollen and wet lips, feeling how his own parted lips were tight and almost-bruised.

"Andrew," Jesse whispered, and that was it, that snapped the remainder of Andrew’s tenuous self-control.

He pressed forward again, kissing Jesse hard, and Jesse responded. Oh, how he responded. His hands slid into Jesse’s curls, and Jesse pressed him closer by his shoulders and neck. Their mouths slid and slipped together so perfectly, that Andrew felt almost dizzy with pleasure. He could do this forever. He wanted to do this forever.

Except no, maybe he didn’t, because he could feel Jesse’s own enjoyment pressing up against his thigh, and it was enough to make him groan against those swollen, tempting lips. He realizes his own arousal was pushing against Jesse’s hip, and he couldn’t help but press closer.

Jesse pulled back with a gasp. "We need to-"

Oh no, if Jesse said they had to stop, this was a mistake, Andrew would just _shatter_ -

"-move this to the bed," said Jesse, looking a little wild-eyed. "Can you, um, take this off?"

He pulled at Andrew’s trousers, hands shaking as he fumbled with the buttons. Andrew nodded, struck dumb with eagerness and happiness. He immediately undid his trousers, pushing down his underwear along with them.

"You too," he said breathlessly as he stepped out of his remaining clothes. "Take them off, let me."

He wasn’t making any sense, and Jesse wasn’t moving, was too busy staring. Andrew didn’t have the time to feel shy, he only knew he wanted Jesse to be naked now too, now, now, now. He pulled at the threadbare blue T-shirt until Jesse obligingly lifted his arms and allowed Andrew to strip the T-shirt off him unceremoniously. Then Andrew attacked Jesse’s trousers too.

They were both naked in a matter of seconds.

Jesse pulled at Andrew insistently, dragging them down onto the bed with Andrew on top of him. He saw Jesse make a face at him when he stared hungrily at all that exposed, pale skin, mouth watering as he wanted to trail his mouth down that flattened stomach to those jutting hipbones. But Jesse didn’t tolerate the scrutiny, squirmed against the sheets before pulling Andrew down for another one of those desperate kisses.

They devoured each other, breaking off to gasp for breath as they ran their hands along waists and hips and thighs, learning secret curves and corners and deriving pleasure from every murmured encouragement. Andrew rolled his hips against Jesse’s, moaning as he felt the answering erection press up desperately against his own.

He wasn’t going to last long, not like this. And he didn’t want to waste a single moment more.

He pulled away, and gasped out, "Fuck me. I want you to fuck me."

Jesse’s eyes were rims of pale blue around blown pupils, arousal written in every line on his face. "Andrew, I- You can’t just-"

He pulled Andrew down for another soul-crushing kiss, sucking harshly on his lower lip before pulling away. "Okay, okay, we need, where’s, what, what’s the faerie equivalent of lube?"

Andrew let out a snort of laughter, burying his face in Jesse’s shoulder.

"Yes, thank you, I really appreciate your laughing at me during sex," said Jesse, voice a wonderfully familiar wry tone.

"No, sorry, it’s just," Andrew mumbled against his skin, waving a hand in a non-explanation.

But Jesse got him. He always did.

"You’re telling me you don’t have a version of KY Jelly here? I’m not feeling all that impressed about this faerie business suddenly," continued Jesse.

Andrew let out another laugh, trying to smother himself in the pillow behind Jesse. But his insistent erection wasn’t going to be taken care of through jibes and wit, so Andrew pushed himself up on one arm and reached up to touch the woven wall behind the bed. He sent his intent quietly through the wood, and one of the branches woven into the wall unfurled itself with creaky swiftness.

Held in a loop of the branch was a stoppered bottle of oil, kept untouched all this while Andrew had been away. It was a good thing he had an adventurous youth. Andrew took it and turned back to Jesse who had also propped himself up on one elbow. Jesse took the bottle and shifted out from under Andrew. He gestured with the bottle, and Andrew lay back down on his front.

There was a moment of stillness, and then, he shivered when he felt Jesse touch the skin around his wings.

"Sensitive?" Jesse asked quietly.

"Yeah," whispered Andrew, burying his face in the pillow.

Jesse didn’t touch his wings, just trailed his fingers down his spine, along his sides, making Andrew move his hips impatiently against the bed. He heard a quiet huff of amusement at his impatience, before Jesse ran a finger along his balls instead.

"Fuck, Jesse." Andrew twitched uncontrollably.

"That’s the idea, I think," said Jesse, slicked fingers fluttering against Andrew’s hole now.

Andrew buried his face against the pillow, feeling his skin flush as he spread his legs further. He felt Jesse press one finger in, going slowly.

"I didn’t- I didn’t guess at all that you wanted this," murmured Jesse as he started moving the finger deeper. "From me."

"Almost right from the start. I’ve thought about being with you so much," whispered Andrew, like it was still a secret.

Two fingers now, enough to make Andrew squirm back towards Jesse and flex his wings gently.

He talked, to distract himself, "I didn’t know you- That you."

He groaned as Jesse added another finger, twisted all three inside him.

"It’s you, of course I did. I let you stay at my place, who else would I let do that?" said Jesse, planting a kiss at the corner of his hips.

Andrew said, "I wanted you so bad, all the time."

He started rocking back against Jesse’s fingers, moaning when they pressed against his prostate with every thrust.

"Look at you, I can’t believe you’re here, like this, I can’t, didn’t imagine," said Jesse, fingers stroking with every word.

"Jess, please, please, I can’t wait-"

The begging worked, because Jesse pulled his fingers out, pulled Andrew up on his knees.

"Wait, I don’t have- I don’t carry condoms-"

"Faeries- We don’t carry or transmit, I’m safe, please-"

"Andrew, I’m going to-"

"Please, Jess, please, oh, oh, fuck, _Jess_ -"

Andrew bit down on his lip, arched his back as Jesse slid in, one smooth, stunning slide. His wings flared, and he had just the faintest presence of mine to stretch them out to the side to keep them out of Jesse’s way.

It wouldn’t do to knock Jesse out right this moment, Andrew thought hysterically.

He could feel the burning heat of Jesse’s fingers clenching on his hips, feel the immoveable hardness pressing deep within him.

Andrew choked out, "Move, please."

And Jesse moved. Jesse groaned and pulled out a little just to push back in again. He started thrusting, mouth running as his hips bore into Andrew.

"You feel, you’re amazing, Andrew, you’re so amazing, I can’t-"

Andrew arched his back, pushing back with gasps and moans of his own. Then Jesse leaned forward, kissing the spot between his shoulders, and the movement caused his cock to rub long and hard against Andrew’s prostate. Andrew almost collapsed on his face as he cried out.

Jesse continued pounding into him from that angle, sending jolts of pleasure through Andrew as he cried out continuously. He could already feel his erection bouncing against his stomach, leaking steadily and leaving a trail on his own skin and on his bed. He was already so close, so quickly.

He felt Jesse stroke up his side, either to soothe him or just to feel his skin. Jesse’s hand brushed against the back of his right wing by accident, and he shook with the pleasure of that touch.

It didn’t go unnoticed.

"Do you, is this good?" asked Jesse, rocking his hips in long, slow strokes as he drew along Andrew’s slightly fuzzy wings.

They arched shamelessly for Jesse’s touch, sending shuddering pleasure down Andrew’s spine.

"Oh Light, oh fuck," swore Andrew, tipping his head down and leaning his wings back for Jesse. "They’re not- They’re strong, not fragile."

They had never felt so sensitive, like they were thrilling notes of ecstasy, every minute inch straining for Jesse. He felt Jesse breathe against one tip, stroke his hand firmly against the underside of the other wing. He felt like he was going to die, pinned to the bed by Jesse’s hard cock, touched with so much care along his trembling wings.

"Jess, please, I have to," Andrew begged, shaking, out of control.

Jesse steadied his hips with one hand and fucked into him all that harder. The pleasure of that blunt head pounding into him so quickly and relentlessly caused Andrew to tighten all over, and he wasn’t going to-

A hand ran firmly down one wing, sending every nerve-ending into a shivering pleasure, and Andrew was coming. His hips snapped back towards Jesse, his body jerking in spasms of uncontrollable pleasure as his cock shot spurts of come all over his belly and bed. He shook and moaned as Jesse continued thrusting, milking the orgasm out of him. His muscles tightened, making it feel like Jesse was growing harder and bigger in him, and then he felt and heard Jesse come as well. Those hips moved faster, and Jesse cried out his name over and over again. It was almost over-stimulation, feeling Jesse shove into him, and his wings stretched as one of Jesse’s hands still clung onto his right wing.

Jesse shuddered behind him, triggering another shiver and clench from Andrew. They both moaned, before just collapsing flat onto the bed in a sprawl of wings and limbs.

"Ngh," Andrew complained, shifting his wings from under Jesse.

They moved around a little as they cleaned up their mess with the sheets before curling around each other, eyes drooping shut. Andrew’s dark wings stretched out over them, keeping Jesse close and warm.

# # # # # # # # # #

  


Andrew woke up again later, desperate not to waste a second. He explored his way down Jesse’s sharp hips, stroked his vulnerable thighs before moving closer to the center, palming the soft, quiescent cock.

Then he had sucked the soft flesh between his lips and relished the feel of Jesse’s cock hardening on his tongue, rolling his arousal between his lips. He had looked up through his lashes at Jesse slowly awakening, body stiffening _everywhere_ as those hazy blue eyes took in the sight before him.

Andrew spread his wings behind him in pleasure, humming as Jesse stared back in amazement and pushed his hips up wantonly.

# # # # # # # # # #

  


They had slept again for awhile after the mutual blowjobs, before Andrew awakened this time to the touch of Jesse trailing his fingers over Andrew’s wings.

"I often found these scatterings of black dust in the oddest places," murmured Jesse, hot breath fluttering against Andrew’s black wings.

Andrew flexed under his soft touch. "They’re tiny, tiny scales, on my wings. I sometimes stretched them out when you weren’t in, and I shed sometimes when I haven’t unfolded my wings in awhile."

"How sensitive are they?" asked Jesse with an undercurrent of mischief, scratching lightly against the edge of one wing pressed against him.

Andrew moaned, pushed back. His wings tried to flare open, only half able to since he was on his side. Jesse scratched his fingers along the insides of his wings, near his shoulders, and Andrew thought he would die from pleasure, wished he could purr like Jesse’s cats to express his enjoyment.

Instead, he rolled onto his front, turning his head to face Jesse. He stretched out his wings, trembling from the toe-curling sensation of Jesse’s hands running softly over the dark scales.

His hips began undulating against his sheets as he groaned and was played expertly by Jesse.

# # # # # # # # # #

  


Later still, they lay on their sides, facing one another. Andrew’s wings were now limp against the bed, exhausted from the thrilling and pleasurable attention Jesse had paid to every inch of them.

Their bodies were beyond spent, muscles jellified from their multiple groping and copulations.

"What are you going to do tomorrow?" asked Jesse, eyes pale in the dark.

Andrew was quiet for awhile, before saying, "I’m not staying."

Jesse bit his lower lip. "What if you visited? Or I visited?"

"I can’t leave the Otherlands once I become Nightlands’ ruler. And humans visiting is unusual, it won’t be easy to get you in regularly," said Andrew, trying to push down his own resignation as he ran his hand idly through Jesse’s curls.

"How, um, how long will you have to be king?" asked Jesse.

Andrew stared at him. It wasn’t possible that Jesse would suggest that he would wait for Andrew to finish his time on the throne.

Andrew shook his head to stem any thoughts in that direction. "Thirty years is the minimum time. My father served his thirty years and is travelling the world with my mother now. I’m almost thirty, I can’t put this off any longer."

He didn’t say it, but he thought it; he couldn’t ask anyone to wait thirty years for him.

Jesse stared at him, meeting his eyes with painful honesty. "Andrew, I- I don’t want you to die, of course, but I don’t want you to be miserable for the rest of your life. This is- I don’t know what you should do."

Andrew reached forward and pulled Jesse closer, enfolding him in his arms. Jesse curled around him, hooking an ankle around Andrew’s and squeezing him back just as tightly.

"I don’t know either," said Andrew. "But I’m glad you’re here right now. I’m glad we, I’m just glad we had this."

Jesse hugged him tighter, but his voice wobbled when he said, "I’m more than glad."

Andrew buried his face in Jesse’s hair as he mumbled, "Being close to you always made me feel better."

"That’s because you’re a cuddle-whore," said Jesse, his own voice shaky and muffled against Andrew’s neck as he tried to make light of the situation.

"Only for you. I always had a weakness for reluctant, zombie-fighting heroes," quipped Andrew weakly.

They didn’t sleep that night.

# # # # # # # # # #

Breakfast in the Circle was usually a communal affair, with a lot of flitting around and chattering as all manners of food was consumed. Faeries tended to love fresh food, eating vast quantities of vegetables, fruits and flowers, along with flamed meat and stews, all in one seating. Most faeries ate an enormous meal to start off the day and snacked in small quantities throughout.

The Circle’s own walls had whispered to Andrew that Emma and Justin were back, that they were breaking fast on the lower levels with Keira and the other inquisitive faeries.

Andrew and Jesse didn’t feel like mingling, both too selfish to share each other with a crowd right this moment. As the heir apparent, Andrew knew he would be mobbed if he went down for breakfast and that he would spend no time at all with Jesse.

So they had their own much smaller breakfast together in his room. Time in the human world meant that Andrew was far more used to eating in smaller quantities first thing in the morning. He found he rather craved tea too, but there was none there. He contented himself to watching Jesse pick at a soft lavender fruit – olims, only existed in the Nightlands, and not dissimilar to pears despite the colour – while Andrew nibbled through a bowl of yellow rose petals.

The last time Andrew had eaten the delicacy was when a fan had surprised him with a bouquet of flowers, and then had stared at him in shock when he had proceeded to pluck off a few petals and eaten them. How was he to know that humans didn’t generally eat flowers? He had avoided flowers after that so as not to accidentally do the same thing again.

By the time the others joined them in Andrew’s room, the detritus of their breakfast had been cleared away by Andrew. It must have been obvious what had transpired between them, since they were standing very close together and there was a marked increase in casual touches between them. But their drawn looks must have been enough to stamp out any teasing Emma and Justin would have usually indulged in.

They were waiting in Andrew’s room for the announcement that the Wizens had reconvened. Emma looked well-rested, excitement brimming behind her worry. The visit to Brightlands must have been very interesting.

"You should have seen the place! It was so bright, and everything was just so _gold_ ," exclaimed Emma with wide-eyed wonder when Jesse had asked her about the visit.

Andrew stifled the disgruntlement that she hadn’t seemed half as excited when she first arrived here. It really shouldn’t surprise him that someone as vivacious as Emma would love the Brightlands.

Keira didn’t seem as inclined to hold her tongue. "Don’t let the shiny exterior fool you. The place and people are more cunning than you can imagine, and they find humans fascinating. They would keep you as a pet if they could."

"Come on, like the Nightlands is any better," drawled Justin. "We know which side of the Otherlands had a crazy King who kept humans on display in a museum."

Jesse frowned. "Uh, how safe are we here, really?"

"That was more than five hundred years ago! And- And it wasn’t one of my ancestors, the throne has changed lines twice since," said Andrew quickly, before reaching out to Jesse with earnest sincerity. "Anyway, I would never let anything like that happen to you."

He thought he heard Justin murmur something like, "Of course you won’t," but Andrew wasn’t too focused on him at that point.

Jesse’s cheeks turned a little pink, but he reached back and squeezed Andrew’s wrist. "I know, you overprotective, giant butterfly."

"More like a moth maybe," teased Emma.

"I’ll have you know that I make a fantastic butterfly," said Andrew, pretending to draw himself up in a huff.

They continued to banter and talk for a few minutes before Emma grew tired of everyone pussyfooting around the main issue. "So what are you going to do? About this whole heir thing."

"I’m going to try to convince them that the human world has a bigger claim on me than my position, because I’ve been there longer and I have started a life there," said Andrew, not really meeting their gazes as he said it.

Keira’s and Justin’s expressions must have spoken volumes because Emma and Jesse looked doubtful.

"If that doesn’t work?" asked Justin.

Andrew blinked slowly, looking away. "I’ll choose to abdicate my throne anyway."

"That means-" Emma cut herself off, looking grim as she remembered the options from yesterday.

A fight to the death or an attempt to see if he survived the loss of his wings.

"We need a moment to talk about this," said Keira, dark eyes boring into Andrew intensely.

He didn’t know which was worse; being picked apart by her discerning gaze, or meeting Jesse’s wide blue eyes, openly reflecting his fear and heartbreak.

Justin said, "Let’s give them a moment. Dark faeries always need a moment to debate things through."

Jesse looked like he was going to protest, but Emma hooked an arm through his and started towing him to the door. Andrew shot a look at Justin suspiciously. It was unlike him to so agreeably get out of the way instead of staying back to watch them like they were his very own entertainment.

But Justin only gave him a friendly wave and smirk before shutting the door behind them. Then Andrew had other things to think about.

Keira gripped him by the shoulder, drawing him close to her side to brush the tips of their wings together in standard Faerie greeting, the one that said ‘hello, I see you, we’re on good terms’. This was serious, since Keira had not initiated the formal greeting with him in years. Andrew steeled himself, waiting for her to try to change his mind on this.

"I know you’re too smart to pick combat," she said, staring him in the eye. "You have been too long out of practice."

Momentarily taken aback, Andrew stared at her for a moment. She watched him back with a steady gaze. Andrew smiled. He should have known better than to expect Keira to discourage him from doing what he really wanted.

He nodded. "I’m glad you don’t think too poorly of my intelligence, but yes, I’m not choosing combat."

Keira let out a breath. "So it will be your wings. You will choose to lose them."

Stiffly, Andrew nodded again. He didn’t want to say it out-loud, his whole body clenching just from the thought of having his wings ripped from him, and the innate magic in him draining away until there was nothing.

"Then you must pick me as the executor," Keira said, her voice calm despite the dark look in her eyes.

"No, don’t be ridiculous, I can’t let you- The event can be traumatizing even for the one executing it," said Andrew, surprised she would even ask him that.

Keira’s lips pressed into a thin line. "We don’t know yet who was behind your attack, and we don’t know if there is anyone who would still prefer you dead rather than disinherited. You can’t trust anyone."

Andrew felt his face draw into a pinch, chest squeezing at the thought that someone would try to make such a horrendous event even worse: try to ensure his death even as he lost his wings.

"You know I’m right," said Keira with determination. "I know the faerie body well enough to be able to execute the removal of your wings with the least damage. And we’re cousins, we’re close enough in magic for me to siphon mine to your injured body. Perhaps it will be enough to sustain your body as it heals from the loss."

Andrew shook his head. "That would be against the law, for you to personally interfere to try to keep me alive."

Keira glared. "Sod the laws. As the executor, I’ll be standing close to you, and your magic will be leaking out everywhere. It would be undetectable, so the risk is negligible."

It was a long shot. With the loss of his wings, Andrew’s body would be losing magic like a burst dam. A stream of magic from Keira wouldn’t likely make a difference, because his body wouldn’t likely be able to hold on to that too. But looking at her determined eyes, he knew that she wouldn’t be able to stand by and do nothing at all.

"You’re my dearest cousin," said Andrew with a smile, turning a little to brush their wings together.

She sighed. "Your most troubled cousin, for having been saddled with a misbehaving prince like you."

"You know you like a little trouble in your life," he said with a weak grin.

"Little trouble, isn’t that what I used to call you when you were a kid?" she teased, the faintest of smiles quirking her lips.

"Let’s not dredge up the past now," he replied.

She didn’t get the chance to respond, since the door to his room opened at that moment.

Justin looked in, his face unusually sober. "The Wizens are ready."

# # # # # # # # # #

  
Cain’s announcements went unremarked by Phineas this time. The entire Wizen had convened again, all nine scattered around the chamber in whichever position they preferred. Andrew took his place at the front with Keira by his side and a step behind him, just like yesterday. Jesse, Emma and Justin clustered together not far behind them.

Looking older than his many years, Phineas spoke with an unfamiliar, grim tone, "The Wizens heard that you wanted to abdicate your throne yesterday."

Andrew nodded, throat dry and not thinking a response was necessary.

"Did you want to wait for the arrival of the former King and Queen?" asked Phineas. "We can send word to them."

It was tempting, very tempting to delay this decision. But the danger to himself, and those close to him, would be present as long as he delayed his decision to either take the throne or abandon it.

"No, it’s not necessary. We don’t know where they are, and it might take months before they are located and informed. This isn’t a decision that can wait that long," said Andrew, determined.

In any case, he knew his father and mother well enough to know what their counsel would be. His bloodline was a brave and hard-headed one, and risking his life for his dream wouldn’t make him unique in any way. They might shed some tears, but they would tell him to do what his heart wanted.

Phineas sighed. "Very well. If you are sure."

"What is your decision then?" asked Janis, almost too eagerly.

"I would abdicate," said Andrew.

Jon leaned in to whisper excitedly to Janis, while Rooney looked pinched with dissatisfaction. Andrew took in the various responses of interest and horror, wondered which reaction was true, and who was hoping he would survive, who was hoping he would die.

He continued with determined hope, reciting the reason he had thought about for awhile now, "I want to claim my obligations to the human world as my reason. I have lived there for ten years, and have made countless commitments to the other side. I have friends who treat me as family, who would grieve if I were never to return to the human world."

There was a pause as the Wizens took in this reasoning.

"If you provide your evidence and details, we can take a day to rule over your claim," said Phineas, though his gaze on Andrew lacked confidence.

Jon spoke up, his tenor grating with his contempt, "That would be an utter waste of time. We can easily decide if this weak claim would be worth our time. Is there anyone whose life depends on your return?"

Andrew stiffened, but was forced to reply, "No."

"Is there anyone’s livelihood dependent on your return?" Jon continued, dark amusement clear in his tone.

Andrew had committed to two future movies, but movies had their cast members drop out all the time, and many went on with hardly a bump.

"No," Andrew said, even this tiny hope sinking in his stomach.

"Then your so-called commitment to the human world is hardly strong enough to balance against abdication of our throne. We don’t need a ruling to see that," Jon said dismissively.

"Yes, why attempt to follow protocol when it stands in the way of your sadistic fun," Keira sneered, violence thrumming in her voice.

"It is always a surprise when we realize that the dog speaks," said Jon.

Janis spoke up, "Let us not bicker like children. Jon is right, we would only waste the Wizens’ time to reconvene on this. I’m sorry, Prince, but your claim is not strong enough for consideration."

Jon’s feathery gray wings shivered with excitement as he called out, "Seconded."

"I agree," said Thom, without expression.

This time, Cain remained silent instead of announcing the agreement of three. No one from the Wizens voiced any arguments. As Andrew had suspected, his claim was too insubstantial. Why had he not thought about this before? He couldn’t think of anything he could have done differently, but maybe if he had worked to build stronger ties to the human world, he could have come up with a stronger suggestion.

But there was no time of self-recriminations. The time for indecisions had long past, and he would deal with whatever came next.

Janis said, "There are only two ways forward. You may choose battle or the destruction of your wings."

Andrew took a deep breath, back straight and shoulders back as he spoke, "I will choose-"

"No," said a voice from behind him.

Jesse.

Andrew turned, mouth pulled down. He understood that Jesse and Emma might not take this well. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought them in here for this, why didn’t he think of _that_ earlier?

Jesse wasn’t looking at him though. He stepped forward and was staring at the Wizens.

Jon laughed, "Oh, the pet human speaks again. What pretty words do you think you can use to make us change the rules of a millennium?"

"A thousand years? Sounds like you, uh, should consider an upgrade," said Jesse, voice loud and clear despite the slight tremor in his hands.

"Jess," started Andrew, feeling his throat closing in on him at the thought that Jesse would want to try something, to make a speech to change their minds. It wouldn’t work, not with the Wizens, but it made Andrew want to hug him close, filled as he was with gratitude.

But Jesse continued, not letting either Andrew or Jon cut in, "But no, that’s not really my intention. I’m not, um, really not that good at debates, because I have a habit of verbal diarrhea so I doubt I can change anyone’s minds just by talking, let alone old stubborn faeries.

Janis sighed. "You’re wasting our time, human."

"My name is Jesse," he said with a sharper tone. Andrew wanted to _kiss_ him. Damn, but Jesse was sexy like that.

Jesse tilted his chin up, an echo of Mark Zuckerberg in his defiant posture. "And I’m making a claim on Andrew."

Oh fuck, oh what-

Andrew’s cheeks started to burn as his mind swirled at the thought of what Jesse was about to do. Surely, surely Jesse wasn’t going to _claim him_ because of what they had done the night before? Surely Jesse didn’t think he could claim sex as enough of a tie to the human world? Oh no, this was terrible, it was impossible. Yes, they had something more between them than just sex, Andrew could feel that and he knew that despite all his own insecurities, there was something definite and real between them, but that didn’t mean anything to the Wizens, not a single thing-

Andrew stepped forward, hands flapping a bit, and he wanted to interrupt Jesse in mortified desperation. But Justin flared his wings wide open suddenly. The sudden motion and splash of color so near to Jesse surprised Andrew, stopped him in his tracks. Justin met his eyes and shook his head imperceptibly. Next to him, Emma gave him a wink.

What were they up to?

Jesse had his legs planted apart, face determined like he was throwing himself into the performance of his lifetime.

"I lay a claim on Andrew, and my claim supersedes your calling him back to the throne," announced Jesse, clear blue eyes glaring at the room in remarkable challenge.

"Do you think your paltry _relationships_ -" Janis started.

Jesse interrupted her, "My claim is to call on his thrice-sworn promise to me."

There was a sudden silence, all rustling and movement stilling as everyone turned their eyes to Jesse. But Jesse remained steady against their gazes, because if nothing else, all his time on the stage had steeled his nerves against moments like this.

Andrew wondered if someone had written him a script, because Jesse was the most comfortable when he had a script to follow, and he was _brilliant_ right now.

Jesse continued, "The first time, he made a promise to take care of my well-being with Keira, Justin and Emma bearing witness in my home. The second time, he promised in this chamber in front of all of you. And the last, he made not an hour ago, in front of those who witnessed the first promise."

"Thrice-sworn," said Keira in genuine surprise as she realized it was the truth. "And thrice-witnessed."

"So I’m calling on this promise. Andrew needs to keep me safe, because-" Jesse stumbled a little, transforming back to the wide-eyed Jesse that Andrew knew so well. "Because New York isn’t very safe at all, what with all the crazy grannies behind the wheel and, uh, and ruthless muggers and careless taxi-drivers. Andrew can’t- can’t protect me from here. So he can’t fulfill his promise here."

Ignoring the random and rambling aside, Jesse had found the perfect get-out plan for him. Andrew’s three promises were binding, but only if Jesse invoked it. And he was definitely invoking it now. But it was a bit of a leap from being friends yesterday to being bonded together by a thrice-sworn promise and claim. Andrew wanted to twist at his hands, wondering if Jesse knew what he was signing himself up for, wondering if he really understood the implications.

They would be tied together for _life_.

But there was no going back. The magic that bound faeries by words stirred in the wind and swept through the chamber in a sudden whirl. Tiny motes of silver light danced in front of Jesse, before leaping over to touch on Andrew. He felt Jesse’s claim settling on him, blanketing him in a skin-tingling warmth.

He stared in a daze at Jesse, who looked faintly taken aback at the sight and whatever he must be feeling. The entire chamber was silent, having witnessed a claim successfully made.

"Wow, this was an unexpected twist," announced Rooney, popping daisies into her mouth like they were popcorn, staring at the events unfolding with rapt interest.

Jon looked put out. "Surely a promise to a _human_ cannot supersede his responsibilities to the throne?"

Justin said in a deceptively casual tone, "Oh, does a royal thrice-sworn promise mean so little in the Nightlands? How interesting."

Several Night faeries bristled, wings fluttering in agitation.

"Who allowed this scum in-"

"How dare you question-"

"I do not have the patience for overblown pride right now!" shouted Phineas. "The Light faerie is right. The Prince’s words should hold more value, not less. He cannot renegade on his promises, so witnessed, as the human has laid a successful claim. Prince Andrew cannot serve as King as he must remain in the human world to fulfill his promise. Is there any opposition?"

"I can’t think of anything wrong with this summary," said Edward, sounding intrigued. "It is a valid abdication, and I second this."

One by one, all the other Wizens agreed, no matter how reluctantly. Jon’s face was scrunched up in disgust that his entertainment had been ruined so quickly, but he nodded his assent despite his reluctance.

Andrew couldn’t believe it. He stared at the Wizens in shock, turning to stare at Jesse who looked a little petrified now. Emma had stepped up to prop Jesse against her, perhaps keeping him upright.

Turning back to the Wizens, Andrew nodded. "I- Thank you."

Phineas smiled. "There’s nothing to thank us. This is the best outcome that could have resulted for us."

"Yeah, not all of us are bloodlusty maniacs like Jon," muttered Rooney.

Janis announced, "Then we now have the matter of an empty throne."

Drawing himself straight, he tried to cling on to some decorum instead of flinging himself at Jesse in shocked relief. With the calmest voice he could summon, he proposed, "As I abdicate the throne, I nominate Keira as the heir, to take her place as the ruler once the Wizens have completed all necessary ceremony."

"What?!" screeched Janis in surprise.

"Oh, bother," grumbled Edward, displeased at this.

"You all know that you’ll find no better candidate than Keira. She is my first cousin, close enough in blood to the throne, and more importantly, she is sharp, intelligent and strong. She takes her responsibilities seriously, and- and you know, she has proven her courage countless times over," Andrew announced, turning to face her directly.

Keira looked stunned, actually agape for the first time ever.

Andrew smiled. "You have always been the one more attuned to the politics in the Otherlands. You have always been more interested at how our laws work, and you have always talked about the way things could be changed for the better. So here’s your chance to do it, Keira. You have wasted enough years being tied down to- well, a flighty heir at best, when you would have made one so much better than I ever could."

Keira stared at him, before smiling just the slightest bit. "Always causing me trouble, cousin."

"This is nonsense!" shouted Janis. "She couldn’t even hold off four measly attackers without needing the Light faerie’s help, and you think she deserves the throne?"

Keira swept around immediately, gray eyes flashing. "Who said anything about four attackers?"

Janis faltered. "You did. Or, or the Prince did, when you recounted."

"No, I didn’t," interjected Andrew. "And neither did Keira."

"We have the four attackers locked up by the other Protectors, another thing I neglected to say. I wonder what we will find out when we look for a connection between you and the hired grunt?" said Keira silkily.

Janis sank down onto a branch, wings trembling. "I- There’s nothing. I would never."

"One of our very own," rumbled Thom sadly.

Andrew stared at her, this older faerie who had watched him grow up here. She had been one of the Wizens for as far back as he could remember, and while she hadn’t been close to him, she was still a familiar face. What could she possibly want so bad that she would try to kill him for it?

Edward stood up, shaking his head. "We will deal with this when we have more evidence. Janis, as per the law, your vote on the Wizens has been revoked as investigations proceed. For now, we have other more important matters to attend to."

Andrew nodded, more than ready to leave and be done with Nightlands’ politics forever. "I stand by my nomination of Keira."

"I second the nomination," said Phineas, looking a little pleased despite his obvious attempts to try to hide his emotions.

"Of course you would, you old coot, your very own daughter taking the throne," grumbled Rooney, before she announced. "Agreed."

Andrew looked from faerie to faerie, and they all agreed, even Edward who had obvious bad blood with Keira. The only one left out was Janis, who stared at the ground in a daze, but that didn’t matter anymore.

"And so witnessed," said Andrew.

With that, he was no longer the heir apparent.

# # # # # # # # # #

  
It was a whirlwind trip back to the human world after that. Andrew was half-afraid that any minute now, someone would change their mind and go ‘nope, didn’t think that one through, you’re still the prince!’ From the way Jesse clutched at his elbow, he was probably worried about the same thing.

They barely had time to regroup in his room, before gathering all the things he had never bothered to take with him the last time. He didn’t know when he would come back again, if ever. He stashed a dozen bottles of moonlight in his pockets just to be safe.

Andrew only had a few minutes with Keira, which was a good thing because she was allergic to sentimentalism.

"I can’t believe you did that," she said, sounding horrified and amazed, all at once.

But Andrew could read the growing gleam of excitement in her dark eyes, and knew that she would take on the throne with the eagerness he lacked for the crown.

"I almost wish I could stick around for the first time you meet the Queen of Light," Andrew said, grinning.

"It’s been awhile since there have been Queen-rulers in both lands," mused Keira.

While Nightlands and Brightlands were in eternal conflict, the royalties did meet up occasionally to hash out overlapping political issues, compromises and trade agreements. He remembered meeting the young Light Princess when he was barely out of childhood. Carey, with her blonde pixie hair and clear blue eyes, was lovely, polite and frightfully intelligent.

Andrew had no doubts that Keira would give her a run for her money as best ruler in the Otherlands.

"You’re going to be amazing," said Andrew, clasping her shoulders.

Keira rolled her eyes. "You have just unloaded an entire kingdom on me so that you can run off and be as irresponsible as you like, so flattery isn’t going to work at all."

Andrew shook his head, looking at her earnestly. "No, I unloaded an entire kingdom on you because I know you’ll make a better fit as ruler of Nightlands."

She leaned in to touch his fluttering wings. "Shut up, you sentimental fool."

That was the sum of their conversation on that matter. Andrew had no words of advice for her, because he had spent more years running away from his responsibility than actually filling in the royal shoes. Keira had far more exposure to the inner-workings of ruling Nightlands than he ever did.

The first ability Keira tried out as Queen of Nightlands was to open up a Lightway to the human world right from Andrew’s room within the Circle.

With very little fanfare, their little group minus Keira stepped through the sliver of light back into Jesse’s apartment.

Andrew took a few seconds to just absorb the familiar feel of the place, with its airy living room lined by shelves of books and faded curtains drawn across wide windows. It was so much like any other day at Jesse’s place that Andrew expected to see the cats curled up on the old, clawed-up couch, rather than being temporarily housed at Joe’s place.

But his curiosity couldn’t be held back anymore.

Andrew turned to Justin. "You had to have a hand in this."

Justin met his gaze with a lazy look. "I have no idea what you’re talking about."

"You’re wearing this- immeasurably smug smirk. You’re definitely behind this," Andrew said, before turning to Jesse. "Jess, how did you- And I’m grateful, I really, really am, but I don’t- How did you know? About the strength of a thrice-said promise."

Jesse crossed his arms, his usually open face suddenly unreadable to Andrew. "Emma told me, after they came back from Brightlands, while you were talking to Keira in your room."

Andrew stared. "That’s- That’s clever. Because if Justin had said something directly, and anyone of the Wizens had found out, someone could have claimed wrongful manipulation by a member of Brightlands, and discarded this entire thing as some sort of plot."

Emma tilted her head. "Huh. When we were at Brightlands, Justin told me not to talk to anyone again, and how if you promised something three times, it superseded nearly everything. So when Andrew promised again- It was just a shot in the dark." She elbowed Justin in the side. "Or so I thought. You brought up something about promises while we were talking to Jesse. You manipulated me so I would remember what you said!"

"Ow," grumbled Justin. "So I get abused for my hypothetical good deed? I feel really unappreciated."

"But how did you- How would you know that I would promise to look after Jesse that third time?" Andrew asked Justin in confusion.

Justin tapped his chin in thought. "If I really was as devious as to tell Emma with the intention that she tell Jesse, then I would have done it under the assumption that you already promised yourself to Jesse several times before in the past, possibly in front of cameras or an audience. It seems like a habit of yours to proclaim devotion to Jesse. I’m actually surprised you have only said it three times before."

Andrew fidgeted. "Not in those exact words."

"Yeah, you were probably usually more of a sap and googly eyed," said Emma.

"I have no idea what you mean," said Andrew, a weak denial.

Emma ignored him. "I still can’t believe you kept this a secret for so long. The Nightlands was so mysterious and seductive, but the Brightlands, what the fuck, it was like Disney on a perpetual high! There were so many colours and it was so _bright_ all the time."

"She couldn’t believe that we don’t differentiate our day and night like humans do," interjected Justin with some amusement.

"I still don’t fucking believe it," announced Emma. "And I can’t believe I met the queen of Brightlands too! She’s adorable, like a little pixie!"

Justin said to Andrew with a sly grin, "Carey really liked her. Thought she was feisty."

But Andrew had just noticed that Jesse had been quiet for awhile now. He was standing with his arms crossed, body a line of tight nerves. Uh oh. He had that face on, his ‘I’m overthinking and I have come to the wrong conclusion that everyone hates me when in reality I’m irresistibly adorable’ face. It was a very expressive face.

Andrew turned his pleading eyes on Emma and Justin. "Hey, guys, I’m really glad you came with me and everything, and we really need to talk about all this, but it’s been a long day, and I need to just, we need just a moment-"

"Yeah, yeah, we get the hint," said Emma, rolling her eyes even as she headed amiably towards the door.

One of the best things about Emma was that she was rarely offended by whatever her friends said.

Justin sighed, muttering to Andrew as he walked by, "Sort his curly brain out and thank me later."

Andrew nodded and saw them to the door gratefully. He squared his shoulders and turned around to Jesse, who was now staring about two feet to the left of Andrew.

"Jess, are you…mad?" asked Andrew tentatively.

"No, not at you," said Jesse, his voice a little low. "But I don’t know what- what happens now? What are we going to do? I don’t want you to be…"

Jesse trailed off and seemed to struggle to find the right words, stuttering a little.

Andrew prompted, "Want me to be?"

"Grateful," said Jesse quietly.

"You, uh, don’t like the concept of gratitude?" asked Andrew in confusion.

"Not if all you feel is gratitude," said Jesse, sounding grim.

Andrew’s mouth fell open in disbelief, staring at Jesse’s closed off posture. He stumbled closer and gripped Jesse by the shoulders.

"Jess, you ridiculous human being," said Andrew sincerely. He ignored Jesse’s surprised and sarcastic ‘thanks.’ "Everyone in the whole world knows that I adore you, and would do anything for you." Andrew smiled softly. "Everyone but you."

Jesse bit his lower lip in embarrassment. "Okay, even I know it. Some days. When you call me precious, which is really over the top, by the way. But, uh, I didn’t exactly ask you, before I made the claim. And it’s a big deal, you didn’t really have a choice."

Andrew gave his arms a squeeze. "It would always be ‘yes’ if you asked. And I hope you asked because you really wanted to. Not just to save my life. I didn’t realize that I had made so many promises to you, and I’m glad you claimed them, but I don’t want you to feel like, um, that was the only way. Justin can be a pushy bastard, and I hope he didn’t make you feel-"

Jesse leaned up and cut off his words with a soft kiss. "He didn’t. I’m- I’m really not sure what I’m doing, and I, uh, my mom’s going to kill me when she finds out I committed to a long term relationship without telling her, but, I- I really like you, Andrew. You know that."

That last bit came out in a mutter, and Jesse looked immensely uncomfortable. Andrew knew Jesse wasn’t all that comfortable with this line of conversation, but it still made Andrew so happy to hear those words.

Andrew beamed in delight, and Jesse pressed his face against Andrew’s shoulder. "Please, turn off the high beams, have pity on this little cyclist."

"You’re not on the road," said Andrew, pressing a fond kiss to Jesse’s head of curls. "I can high beam all I like."

They stood like that for a moment, basking in the familiar warmth of body contact as they just breathed together in harmony. After a few moments, Jesse pulled back to look Andrew in the eye.

He asked, seemingly out of the blue, "So, the reason you hate Justin. Is it cause you’re both, warring races and all that-?"

He waved one hand randomly, as if that would explain the gaps in his question. But Andrew understood him well enough.

"We’re not really warring races. And I don’t really care about the differences between Nightlands and Brightlands. It’s all pretty stupid, honestly."

"So why do you hate Justin then?" Jesse persisted.

"I don’t hate him," grumbled Andrew. "But- Okay, when we were kids, Justin would sneak over the border into Nightlands, and we would play together. We only knew each other for a month or so, but it was pretty fun, I didn’t really have anyone close to my age who was willing to play with ‘the Prince’." Andrew grimaced at that memory.

"You were friends," said Jesse in surprise. "What happened?"

Andrew made a face and shrugged. "He pushed me into a river."

Jesse looked at him incredulously. "Wait, you’re holding a grudge for a prank he pulled when you were both in the single digits?"

"He was ten!" protested Andrew, before subsiding under Jesse’s raised eyebrows. "Fine, fine. And then he left. He never came back to meet me at our usual playing spot, after the river incident. It was only after I came over to the human world that I found out that he was actually half-faerie. He was only visiting at that time, and had come back here to live with his human mother."

It was a childish hurt, but it was a hurt that stuck around, the idea that he had been abandoned by his only playmate.

"It’s good to know that Justin has always been some form of idiotic," said Jesse, tugging Andrew towards the couch and settling both of them down onto its lumpy, worn cushions. "And he always has to be different. I didn’t think that humans could, uh, breed with faeries."

Andrew curled up against Jesse’s side, tucking an arm around his back. "It’s not common, but it’s possible. I’m pretty sure that somewhere in Armie’s line, he has a royal Light faerie ancestor."

"Huh, I wouldn’t be surprised," said Jesse in a considering tone.

They shared a moment of silence, where Andrew imagined Armie meeting Carey, all blonde haired and blue eyed, dignified nods and beautiful smiles. It would be a treat to see that.

Jesse asked, "Do I have anymore secrets to expect from you, Mr. Ex-Prince?"

"That’s Mr. Ex-Prince Spider-man to you, sir," muttered Andrew.

Jesse snorted.

Andrew fidgeted.

"Andrew…" said Jesse, twisting a little to stare him in the eyes.

Andrew toyed with the blanket on the couch, and mumbled, "In Spring, we sort of go into a, um, well, I don’t know how to explain it, but the closest explanation is a bonding period where faeries, er, renew ties of a sort."

"What does that even mean?" asked Jesse with a frown.

Andrew’s mumble dropped even further in volume. "It’s- Well. The dust on my wings, um, theybecomeintoxicating."

There was a moment of silence.

Andrew tried again, "Aphrodisiacs. The dusts. To spur a, erm, mating frenzy. To renew bonds."

There was a longer moment of silence.

" _What_?"

**THE END**

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. The inspiration (but not a direct reflection) for the wings they have: [Andrew's](http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l523/j_nonny/waspmoth4.jpg), [Keira's](http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l523/j_nonny/tigermoth.jpg) and [Justin's](http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l523/j_nonny/madagascansunsetmoth.jpg). (These are links to moths and butterflies.)
> 
> 2\. The cat Pisana is named after Carta Pisana, the oldest surviving nautical chart. Cantino is named after the Cantino World Map, another old and famous nautical map.


End file.
